Fowl Play
by dirksies
Summary: Beckett and Castle are on a curious case involving a mysterious cause of death and find evidence that implicates a certain boy genius. Artemis Fowl just struck a deal for obscene amounts of money from Microsoft and is in New York to show it off.
1. Prologue

A/N: Hey, hillyhp2590 here, and I am writing this story with royalmagician. I'll be doing the Castle side of things, and she'll be working on the Artemis Fowl side of the story, so direct your hatemail accordingly. The angry stuff to her, the love to me! Thanks!

Disclaimer: Not our's, but the story is! Although, royalmagician is working diligently on marrying Arty, we'll get back to you on how that goes down.

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**Prologue:**

"Daddy, will you push me on the swings?" the little girl asked as she trotted beside her father, clutching his finger with her fist. Her brown curls bounced as she beamed up at her father, brown eyes twinkling.

"Of course, sweet heart," said the father cheerfully as he flicked his eyes over to smile at his wife who was on the other side of his daughter, holding the little girl's other hand. The father looked a lot like his daughter, curly brown hair in a playful mop on his head, deep brown eyes surrounded by laugh lines. His hands were worn but meticulous as his daughter leaped and he swung her forward, his hands had seen a lot in his line of work as an EMT.

The wife tried to smile nervously back, but her eyes flicked to a man staggering a few feet in from of them. _He couldn't be drunk already?_ Her eyes asked her husband and he shrugged, anything was possible in New York City. She had strawberry blond hair with sharp green eyes. Her features were soft and lovely, and her belly was pleasantly round with the expectation of another sibling on the way for their little girl.

The man in front of them seemed to be wearing a heavy trench coat, which was odd in the sweltering July weather, and yet he didn't seem to be breaking a sweat. There was just something off about him, the way his head lolled to the side, the way his feet scrapped along the ground, almost as if he wasn't making contact with the pavement. All in all, it made the wife shiver in the coming dusk.

Even though it was getting later in the evening, New York City still blazed with the summer heat as it bounced off the buildings, the pavement and the nearby Hudson River. Riverside Park had settled down slightly for the day, the two parents could still see children in the distance playing in the fountain of River Run playground to cool off, but there were definitely fewer children now and the play was more subdued.

"How about we get some ice cream first?" suggested the wife carefully, noticing that the drunk man seemed to be heading towards the playground.

"Yeah, nothing goes better with hotdogs," said the husband, mentioning what the family had eaten for dinner, "than ice cream," he finished, catching on to what the wife was hinting at. He didn't think the man was dangerous, if someone was walking like that this early in the evening, they probably had more problems than they knew what to do with, but he trusted his wife's instincts.

"Yummy!" cheered the girl, jumping up and swinging between her parents as the trio changed direction slightly to head to the nearby ice cream street vendor. Suddenly, out of the corner of the father's eye, the staggering man collapsed and rolled, almost as if he was thrown to the side by something.

The father's training kicked in. "Stay with your mommy, sweetie," he said to his daughter as he bounded over to the fallen man, large feet pounding the pavement.

The wife bit back a yell to her husband not to get involved, knowing it wouldn't do any good anyway, before she whipped out her cell phone and dialed the police.

Meanwhile, back over with the fallen man, the husband grabbed him by the shoulder and shook slightly. "Sir, can you hear me? Are you alright?"

The drunken man's only response was to roll limply to the front, revealing a scruffy face with clouded eyes staring up at the sky. The EMT swallowed and stood up, eyes not looking at the man's face, but at the wound in his chest that had caused this man's death. His brain tried to process what he was seeing, but he just couldn't understand it, of all the wounds he had ever seen working as an EMT, he had never seen one that looked like someone had been killed with a laser.

* * *

The air-conditioning system in Richard Castle's apartment was doing its best to try to keep the three inhabitants of the space cool, but it just wasn't enough. Alexis, Castle's red-headed, 16 year old daughter was sprawled out in her bathing suit, which she hadn't taken off since she went swimming with her friends, with a towel underneath one of the air vents, shivering and sweating at the same time.

Martha, Castle's mother, had draped herself on the couch, wearing a green sun dress that clung wetly to her skin in a way that was most uncomfortable. Castle himself, decked out in khaki shorts, brown Chaco's, and a blue Hawaiian shirt, stood in the kitchen with the freezer door open, staring at the food inside and trying to keep himself from sweating anymore.

"Dad, if you leave that open, everything in there is going to melt," said Alexis wearily, as if she had said that more than once.

"I'm trying to decide what I want," replied Castle, whining slightly.

"As long as it doesn't involve eating something straight out of the box, sign me up," said Martha dramatically, trying to move as little as possible.

"Well, that rules out what I was going to suggest," Castle said, finally closing the door as Martha and Alexis moaned out a sigh. Castle sat down in a stool at the far side of the kitchen bar and pressed his head against the cool counter top.

"When is this heat going to break?" Alexis whined in turn, breaking out of her usual mature self to sound rather pathetic.

"Not until August or so," Castle said reasonably, casting a worried look down at his daughter, it must be really bad if she was being reduced to a typical teenager.

"I wish I could take an ice bath," said Martha, rubbing her temples to fight off the oncoming migraine.

"Ice?" repeated Castle, perking up before scuttling back into the kitchen and digging around some of the top cupboards.

"Dad? Now what are you looking for?" asked Alexis, slowly lifting up her head to peer over at her father curiously.

"I know it's here somewhere. You said it was a stupid thing to buy, but I knew we would need it someday," Castle ranted, searching frantically through the kitchen.

"Need what?" asked Martha, managing to get interested enough to turn and watch her son search as well.

"A-ha!" said Castle, pulling a box out from underneath the sink and showing it to his mother and daughter. The box read "Make Your Own Sno-Cone! Family Fun for Everyone!" in bright cheery letters. The box bore a red border on the top and bottom with a white background in the middle. A picture of the strange Sno-Cone maker was plastered over the front next a child looking like this was the most posed fun he had ever had. The box itself, however, looked like it had never been opened.

"Oh, this will be so much fun, guys! Come on, let's make Sno-Cones!" cheered Castle, setting the box down on the counter before he swung back over to the refrigerator and began pulling out all different kinds of drinks. "And we can have it any flavor you want!"

Alexis and Martha traded looks. They were skeptical at first but as Castle began puttering around the kitchen, trying to figure out how the Sno-Cone Maker worked, they both got slowly to their feet.

"He'll hurt himself if we don't go help him," said Alexis, a smile beginning to dance on her lips again.

"I'll get the fire extinguisher," added Martha dryly as both headed over to the kitchen area.

In the end, the fire extinguisher wasn't needed and everyone agreed that the Sno-Cones were a good idea, which Castle wouldn't let anyone forget. Castle was just finishing off his awesome root beer, chocolate, marshmallow, whip cream extreme when his cell phone rang. Alexis and Martha traded a conspiratory smile as Castle answered the call.

"Hello," Castle said, smiling as well, but for a completely different reason. "Ah, Beckett, would you like a Sno-Cone with your murder?"

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A/N: Really, we enjoy love mail more than hate mail, so read and review! If you like it, review so we'll post more of the story sooner.


	2. Chapter One

Disclaimer: Not our's!

**Chapter One**

Homicide Detective Kate Beckett stood outside the police line of her most recent case. Examining the sky as she waited, Kate enjoyed the site of the sun setting over the Hudson River, painting it deep reds and oranges. Hopefully with the sun setting, the heat that had plastered the city would finally break for a little bit. If only she could be so lucky. Her auburn hair was damp with sweat, swept into position to stay out of her face, but no care was taken beyond that, it was simply too hot. Her outfit was also based more on comfort than anything else, though how comfortable a skirt was is up for debate. Her white blouse on top was loose to help keep air flowing. Finishing her inspection of the scene, she then crossed the police tape to approach the victim who was accompanied by a cop and the medical examiner. The only thing missing from this scene was—

"Hey, Beckett," said a cheery male voice from her right, "I'm glad you didn't start without me."

"Hello, Castle," greeted Beckett calmly as she walked, eyes already examining the body, not bothering to acknowledge her new companion with a look.

"So, what do we got?" asked Castle, rubbing his hands together like a kid about to get into a whole lot of mischief.

Beckett looked to a Hispanic man, the cop, who held a clipboard and nodded. "Go ahead, Esposito," she instructed, eyes still examining the body.

"What we've got here," began the homicide detective, "is a 5'10, 200 pound white male. The i.d. found on the body says that this is Drew Whitmore, 30 years old, who lives a block over on West Edgar Allen Poe Street." Beckett's eye scan of the body revealed a man with shaggy dark hair in a thick trench coat. His eyes were open and a film had since covered them, beginning the process of decomposing after the body had stopped living. Underneath his trench coat, Beckett observed typical summer clothes, a pair of shorts and a green polo.

"Contact the next of kin so we can get some more background on this guy," instructed Beckett.

"Already on it," replied Esposito. "Our witnesses," continued Esposito, gesturing over to a young couple who was talking to Homicide Detective Kevin Ryan, a little girl peering nervously out from behind her father's legs, "said that this man appeared to walk to this location before he seemed to fall over. The father, though, he's an EMT, checked the body soon after he fell and saw…well," trailed off the detective, at a loss for words.

Beckett looked questioningly at her detective and then glanced down to her friend, the medical examiner, Lanie Parish. Lanie met Beckett's eyes and moved to reveal the mark on the victim's chest. "What is that? Not a gunshot wound," said Beckett, hunching down next to the body as Castle almost squealed with joy.

The wound was the oddest thing that Beckett had ever seen in all her years of work. Pulling back the trench coat's fabric, the entry wound could be clearly seen, meaning the victim hadn't been wearing the coat when he was killed. The killing blow was sharp and clean to the chest, right at the heart. There was a contact wound around the hole, implying that the gun had been close to the victim's skin when he had been shot, but the entry wound was larger than any expected shot would be and still leave the skin intact. What's more, the skin around the wound and into the chest seemed to be burned completely reducing the amount of blood present from the wound and frying the tissues instantly, almost as if…

"Guy's, it's a laser gun!" cheered Castle, a combination of excitement and seriousness on his face.

"Aside from the Science Fiction department over here," piped up Dr. Parish, "I'm not sure what kind of weapon could have made this. There wasn't any evidence of an exit wound, so whatever did this hit its mark and stopped. I'll need to get it back to the lab before I can examine it further."

She paused as everyone absorbed the information, Castle trying to give knowing looks to Beckett who was ignoring him. "Based on temperature, the smell of this guy, and some of the bugs already present in his unmentionables, I would guess he hasn't been dead long, maybe thirty minutes to an hour at best, but the heat has most likely sped up decomposition. Again, I would need to get him back to the lab for a more exact time. Like what the witnesses said, this man wasn't killed here, but he was placed here."

"But by what or who?" asked Ryan, re-joining the group after quizzing the witnesses. "They said the man seemed to walk to this spot."

"You mean 'whom'," corrected Castle.

Dr. Parish shook her head. "No, I don't know what killed this man, but I know he was killed instantly. Any moving about this guy did after he died, he did it with help."

"So," said Castle, examining the body again, "this man was human, but was then killed by a laser gun, became a zombie, walked to the park where he finally succumbed to the laser gunshot and died for real. I lied before; _this_ is the best case ever." Esposito, Ryan, and Castle traded "feeding the chicken" as Lanie chuckled and Beckett rolled her eyes.

"Also this was found in his pocket," said Lanie, carefully sliding a spherical device out of the dead man's pocket and holding it up for Beckett to see. Beckett grabbed it with her gloved hand, rolling the sleek, black device around her palm.

"Any idea what this thing is?" asked Beckett somewhat rhetorically.

Castle's brow furrowed as he grabbed the ball out of Beckett's hand. "It can't be," he murmured, gloved fingers meticulously edging around the surface of the ball, feeling for the emblem he hoped to find.

"What is it, Castle?" asked Beckett, realizing that he was being serious for the first time that night.

Castle's fingers stopped moving as he found the mark he was looking for. He lifted up the device in his hand, blue gloved finger underlying the indented "AF" he had just found engraved on the device. Everyone stared blankly at him as he just looked awestruck as if he were holding solid gold.

"Well?" Lanie prompted, "I would like to get a move on before this guy starts smelling even worse."

"This is Artemis Fowl technology," said Castle reverently. He paused dramatically, but everyone just continued to look at him, exasperated. "Come on, you guys. It was sold to Microsoft for an obscene amount of money and was revealed at Comic Con a little over a week ago. I am now holding the newest step in technology."

Ryan and Esposito's faces widened with excitement. "Wait, this is one of those hologram projector computer things!" said Ryan excitedly, hands twitching like he couldn't figure out if he wanted to grab it or worship it.

"So? It's a piece of tech. So, what?" said Beckett uninterestedly as Castle, Ryan, and Esposito glared at her.

"Esposito, will you do the honors?" Castle directed.

"So," said Esposito, "this is the coolest thing since the IPad, and about 20 years in the future, technology-wise."

"And," added Castle, smirking, "only one person is supposed to have it." Beckett's eyes narrowed, she might not care much about technology, but she could follow a chain of reasoning with the best of them. "The young Master Artemis Fowl," concluded Castle.

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"I don't care if he is the only one who is supposed to have this tech., he doesn't have any connection to our vic," insisted Beckett as she walked back into the police station. "We need to start with those that have a connection with our victim first; friends, family, coworkers. They are statistically the ones most likely to have killed him."

The place buzzed with energy as she walked over to the white board which was maddeningly clean, for Beckett, after the last case and began to write up the details on the space. She carefully wrote the word "Victim" in bold letters before slapping a picture of Drew Whitmore up on the board. After drawing a line along the bottom as a timeline for the victim's last few hours of life, she then wrote "Suspect" on the right side of the board which, unfortunately, was still blank. Staring frustrated at the board for a minute, she turned to glance at Castle who was settled on his chair next to her desk, looking like he was trying to overcome some deep internal struggle as he stared at the device in his hands.

"Castle," she snapped, "you still have that thing? Get it to CSU to dust for prints; whoever put that thing on our victim probably killed him."

"Dust it?" Castle asked, voice about an octave higher than usual. "You can't dust this! It would ruin it."

Beckett shrugged, enjoying watching Castle look like he was about to have a heart attack. "You said so yourself, no one else is supposed to have it besides Artemis Fowl. It's probably a fake."

Castle glanced down at the black sphere as if he hadn't thought of this before. After a second, as Beckett answered a phone call from Ryan and Esposito who were conducting a search of the area around Riverside Park to try and find the murder location—no luck, Castle pulled off his right glove, holding the ball in his still gloved left hand. "One way to find out," he muttered, before sticking his finger onto the fingerprint scanner.

"Castle, what're you—?" Beckett began, eyes almost bugging out of her head as Castle touched the evidence.

Castle quickly set the device on Beckett's desk, trying to remember how he had seen the boy do it on TV. The two, detective and writer, watched silently for something to happen, Castle holding his breath, Beckett watching with a combination of wariness and incredulity. Suddenly, three antennae like rods poked out off the bottom of the device, causing it to jump a couple inches in the air before it settled back about half a foot off the desk surface on a new tripod-like stand.

"It's real," Castle whispered in awe.

He smiled goofily and flicked his finger watching as the hologram projection filled the police station. Stars and plants zoomed around the office space as Castle directed a spaceship with his finger. All the officers present stopped to gaze at the sight, completely dumbfounded. Capt. Montgomery even peeked out of his office to stare at the Star Trek-like spaceship flying around the room. "Castle! Beckett! What the hell is that?" he demanded, a mixture of awe and annoyance in his voice.

"The coolest thing ever!" Castle crowed at the same time as Beckett said, "A lead."

Castle heard her and turned to look at the detective who was now looking sternly at Castle. "Get that down to CSU. Now," she ordered as if she expected to be followed.

Castle wiggled his finger around frantically, trying to remember how to shut the thing off. Finally he just settled on gently taping it with his still gloved left hand. Although the piece of tech made some kind of resentful noise, it shut off the projection and popped back down to its ball shape resting form. Castle gave a moment of respectful rest to the device before he carefully picked it up with his still gloved hand and carried it over to the CSU guys.

_I'll ask them to be careful with it, and maybe they won't destroy it completely,_ Castle thought hopefully. _And I should probably mention that one of those fingerprints is mine._

Once Castle returned from CSU, quietly mourning the loss of the most awesome thing he had ever held, besides his little Alexis after she was born, he saw Ryan and Esposito debriefing with Beckett.

Ryan flipped through his notes. "The victim's body was heading toward his apartment, which means he probably wasn't killed there," he said, and winced. "That had to be one of the weirder things I've ever said. Anyway, we checked at the apartment but all the doors and windows were locked."

"It's too late in the evening to get any investigation work done there," acknowledged Beckett. "Whatever is there will probably stay there the night, it's most likely not our crime scene anyway. We'll head there first thing in the morning."

Esposito nodded. "Nobody in the area saw anything more than our original witnesses did," he reported, flicking his notes closed.

"We left a couple uniforms up there to expand the search beyond the park and into the surrounding neighborhood, but the area is so big that it's unlikely we'll find the murder location," finished Ryan.

Beckett nibbled her lip as Castle joined the trio. "Where are we on finding nearest of kin?" asked Beckett.

"We got a hold of the vic's brother and sister, they should be here soon," replied Ryan wearily, already dreading that confrontation to come.

"Check Drew's background, see if there's any reason for someone to want to kill him," instructed Beckett. Ryan and Esposito nodded, returning to their desks to leave Castle and Beckett to examine the whiteboard.

Beckett sighed and began to write on the whiteboard, scribbling up everything they knew about the victim so far. "We really don't have much, do we," said Castle, face twisted in thought as he read over Beckett's shoulder.

"We have no murder location, no murder scene, an unknown weapon, and some mysterious technology that no one is supposed to have," replied Beckett, slapping the dry erase marker down on the ledge underneath the whiteboard and scowling at the board as if it was at fault for the lack of evidence.

"And the mysterious way that our body got to where we found it," added Castle, which Beckett grudgingly added to the board as well. "I'm leaning more toward an invisible man being our killer at this point."

"Oh, so not zombies, then?" asked Beckett, humoring Castle a little bit, arching an eyebrow.

"No, you have to shot zombies in the head, our victim was shot in the chest," replied Castle seriously.

Beckett sighed, shaking her head. "And why would the killer place a trench coat on the vic?" she asked, getting more questions than answers from her whiteboard.

"With a trench coat on the body an Invisible Man would be able to hide the wound and move the body without people noticing," suggested Castle. "Much," he added. "Wait, where was that device found?"

"In the trench coat pocket, I believe," said Beckett, flicking her eyes over her notes of the crime scene, mind working fast as she glanced back up at Castle. "You think it was planted?"

Castle shrugged. "Or it was left on accident," he suggested again, but then his brow furrowed and he shook his head. "Why would someone plant a piece of stolen technology on a dead guy?"

Suddenly the phone on Beckett's desk rang and she walked over to pick it up. "They're here?" asked Beckett quickly and then nodded. "Thanks. Send them up." Beckett and Castle traded a look; Castle's face was serious and slightly concerned.

"Do you want me to sit this one out?" he asked carefully, watching the elevator doors for the victim's family to arrive.

"Why don't you sit in on this one," said Beckett as the elevator doors slid open revealing a short woman with mousy brown hair tied back in a ponytail in a tank top, shorts and flip flops, trying to beat the summer heat. Her face was tanned as if she spent a lot of time outside. A man stood next to her, looking uncannily like the victim with shaggy black hair wearing khaki shorts and an orange polo. "We don't have many leads, so we'll need to go right into questioning the family."

"Our victim has a twin," noted Castle as he and the detective approached the pair. Castle glanced at Beckett to see her steeling herself before she talked to the victim's family. He knew that Kate saw this as the hardest part.

"I'm Detective Kate Beckett," said Beckett, offering her hand to the two, her voice already sympathetic.

"Carly Whitmore," introduced the woman, looking into Beckett's face as if trying to guess what this was about.

"Thomas Whitmore," said the man.

Beckett shook hands with both before turning and introducing Castle. "This is Rick Castle." Castle shook hands with the two family members as well. "Will you follow me in here, please?"

Beckett led the brother and sister into the sitting room and offered them the couch, closing the door behind them. Castle closed the door on the far side of the room, returning to claim one of the chairs on the far side of the coffee table as Beckett sat in the other.

Kate took a second to compose herself before she looked at the siblings. "I'm truly sorry to have to tell you this, but late this afternoon, we found Drew's body at Riverside Park about two blocks from his apartment."

Carly Whitmore gave a strangled gasp. "No!" she whispered hoarsely. "He can't be dead. We all had Sunday brunch together, didn't we, Tom?" she protested frantically. "Didn't we?" she tried again, eyes darting from her brother, realization crashing around her as she slumped against her brother, shaking. "No," she muttered again, tears coming to her eyes this time.

The brother clutched his sister, eyes hard but confused. "Why?" he finally managed to say as his sister wept into his shoulder. He swallowed, awkwardly patting his sister's back as he heaved a shaky breath, trying to remain composed for his sister.

"We don't know yet," Castle said gently, offering Carly a tissue box. She took it, snuffling, blowing her nose before returning to her brother's shoulder.

"This may be difficult for you, but we don't have many leads to go on right now," said Beckett. "I'm sorry to have to do this so soon after your loss, but will you answer a few questions for us?"

Carly and Thomas nodded in synchronization. "Yes, of course," said Carly, sitting up, a new determination on her face, though tears still trickled out of her eyes.

"Anything to put the bastard behind bars," concluded Thomas fiercely.

"Tell us a little about Drew, what was he like? Where did he work? Did he have any enemies?" asked Beckett carefully.

"He was, well, he was a gruff guy," Carly acknowledged. "He had been dating this girl for a really long time, he was going to propose, but then all of a sudden she up and left him about a month ago for someone with more money, he hasn't been the same since." A few more tears trickled down her face.

"Drew lost his job a few weeks ago," said Thomas, eyes pained remembering his brother. "He used to work as an accountant, he was really good with numbers, but after the break-up, he started slipping, showing up late for work or not at all."

"We tried to tell him that she wasn't worth it," said Carly. "That's what we talked about at brunch today." Carly looked to her brother for confirmation and he nodded. "We got to him today, when he left, he seemed ready to turn everything thing around." Carly sniffed wetly, scrubbing away a couple tears that leaked out of her eyes again.

"And that was the last time you saw him?" Castle asked, feeling sorry for the siblings.

"Yes," said the brother. "I went home to Anna, my fiancée, and we, er, spent the afternoon together."

"Oh," said Carly, remembering something. "Drew stopped me before I left and asked me for money. He said he needed to go grocery shopping and asked if I could loan him some money. So I did. After that, I went to my mother's apartment to visit."

"Do you know what grocery store he normally goes to?" asked Beckett, jotting down notes.

"He normally goes to Broadway Farm on Broadway Street and 85th, it's the closest to his apartment," replied Carly.

"Oh, wait, today was a nice day, he would have walked to Zabar's at Broadway and 80th or so," interrupted Thomas. "Drew loved to walk places when the weather was nice."

"I think that's all the questions we have for you," said Beckett, offering a sad little smile to the siblings. "If we have any more questions, we'll get in contact with you."

"Thank you," murmured Carly, voice shaking again.

"We'll do everything we can to find your brother's killer," added Castle.

Thomas nodded silently, taking that promise at its full value.

After Beckett escorted the couple back to the elevator, she heaved a sigh, rubbing her temples before walking back into the main room.

"How do you do it?" asked Castle for what felt like the hundredth time.

"It never gets any easier," she murmured. "Esposito, will you check out this store, Zabar's on Broadway and 80th?" asked Beckett, slipping the piece of paper to Esposito.

"Sure, but they're probably closed for the evening," he replied, glancing at the paper before checking his watch.

Castle glanced at his watch as well, it was already 10 o'clock. "We probably won't make any more headway on this case tonight," Beckett sighed before looking to Castle. "Fun stuff's over for the day," she told, smiling grimly at him.

"See you at the dead guy's house tomorrow?" asked Castle.

"See you at the dead guy's house," Beckett replied as Castle left in his ridiculous Hawaiian shirt. Beckett sighed, swinging over to her desk and booting up her computer. She had to check one last thing before she went home for the evening, saying good bye to Esposito and Ryan as they left, Esposito teasing Ryan about honey milk as the two walked away. Beckett's nimble fingers typed the name she wanted more information on in the search bar and she almost fell over when an Interpol file was the first on the list.

* * *

A/N: That was hillyhp2590 for you. Royalmagician will be writing the next chapter. Thanks for reading and leave a review, please!


	3. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: not our's! (still, despite royalmagician's best efforts)

**Chapter Two**

The young boy, looking about the age of fourteen, scanned the exhibition hall with his icy blue eyes as a thin smile graced his rather pale, angular face. The sleek technology gleamed due to the glass walls and counters reflecting light onto them just right, the black marble floors were glossy just like the computer monitors, and the ultra modern chairs set in front of the clear stage where the glass podium was already set with all his presentation notes all looked according to his directions. He nodded, 'Perfect; all is as is should be.'

"Sir," said a familiar voice from behind him and the boy turned to see his colossal and bald butler, Butler, standing in the main entrance to the exhibition hall, "The hall will be opening in approximately five minutes."

"Thank you, Butler," the boy replied in a thick Irish accent before he returned his focus back to the exhibition hall. Butler slightly bowed to the back of the boy before returning to stand guard at the door.

The pair were in the Microsoft Building in New York City, situated along the Avenue of the Americas, preparing for the lucky few employees that were invited to the demonstration of Microsoft's newest partner's technology.

It had been a quick visit to the headquarters in California for the young man, as soon as he showed his latest mundane technology to the executive and the rest of the board at Microsoft-along with one or two higher ranking software designers-they had been nearly begged him to sign their partnership deal. Of course, the boy didn't expect anything less since he had the highest tested I.Q. in all of Europe and that meant his technology was more advanced than anything Microsoft had to offer by a long shot.

The company had tripped over themselves to arrange a meeting before Apple could when he sent a formal offer to both companies. Both of the technology giants knew that whoever had his software would lead the next revolution in computers and software and the boy was just fine with sitting back and watching the two duke it out, getting higher and higher offers of money made to him, which, of course, was all part of the plan.

In the end, Microsoft had contacted him first and offered a ridiculous amount of money that Apple wasn't willing to top and the boy couldn't possibly say no to. So, after a brief three-day visit to California, the Irish youth had struck a deal and, after that deal was done, Microsoft had approached him about touring the country, exhibiting his new software.

Of course, the boy would've declined the offer since he wasn't the sociable type-more the kind that sat back and laughed manically as he watched everyone do his bidding-but Microsoft once again offered a large sum of money that could've bought enough food to last a small country for a year. So, now the last place on their technology road trip was New York City to the monstrous office building, where they were at that moment.

They had traveled to most of the major cities, starting out in Los Angeles at Comic Con on the preview night of the convention, since that was the night when convention-goers had to pay obscene amounts of money. Of course, all of the audience members had been truly amazed by the software and the press just couldn't get enough of it.

Because of it, the exhibitions in Seattle, Denver, and Chicago's attendance had skyrocketed and the boy had the pleasure of raising the admission fee from fifty to a hundred dollars and still have more than enough people willing to come and pay that much.

They had spent a day at each destination, which meant long nights in the family jet-much to the boy's displeasure since he could never catch a wink of sleep when flying-and having to change his watch whenever he landed. But, on the bright side, he had gotten to go to many of his favorite restaurants that were only in those specific cities-including Giordano's in Chicago, where he nearly passed out from the intake of too much deep dish pizza and Butler broke the record for most pizza slices consumed in one sitting. (The old record was fifteen and, let's just say, Butler beat it by a good ten slices.)

And now the pair was in New York City, the Big Apple, for a good week since there would be a small private exhibition that mid-afternoon-starting a few minutes, in fact-and then a three-day long event opened to the public. After that, it was a few conferences with technology designers and then back to Ireland. The boy didn't particularly like long business trips, but it was earning a good share of money, so he just had to grin and bear it.

He turned just at that moment to see a flood of people entering, all dressed smartly in business suits and ties, just as the boy usually was. He, at that moment, wore a French designed black blazer with golden buttons, perfectly tailored as all his jackets were, freshly pressed black slacks, black leather belt with a silver buckle, a crisp white dress shirt with a silk tie the same shade as his blazer. His dress shoes were glinting from their polishing and both had pennies tucked in the top for luck.

Naturally, none of these people were as smartly dressed as he was, but none of them looked like slobs either, which earned them some respect from Artemis, who believed dressing smartly was a must in any circumstance. Many of the people were drawn like moths to a fire as soon as they caught sight of the monitors that were proudly displayed on the many clear counters, while others stopped in to introduce themselves or to generally gush about the boy's work. As more people filter in and stopped to talk with him, the boy put on as much of a welcoming smile as he could, hoping that he didn't look like he was in pain-as often his smiles came off looking that way.

Soon the flow turned into more a trickle and then stopped altogether; it appeared that everyone who was invited had arrived. Just as the boy was turning to set off across the exhibition hall, chat with some of the attendees and then make his way over to the stage and prepare for his presentation, a rather grouchy looking person came in.

This person was a young man-appearing about twenty years old-and he had messy blond hair and stormy gray eyes that narrowed into a glare when they caught sight of the boy standing there. The boy had to admit, even though this older boy was wearing a suit and tie, it still managed to look messy due to the effect his hair had on it. The boy supposed that his hypotheses of dressing in suits or formal business wear was always made on look smart wasn't universal.

"Are _you_ Artemis Fowl?" asked the blond young man as he strode over to the Irish boy. It was a bit of a startling contradiction between the two because one of the boys had neat, perfectly slicked back black hair while the other had a blond mess.

"That is what I'm usually referred to as, yes," Artemis Fowl (the Second) nodded with a slight smirk, saying this in as much of an irksome way as he could.

"I can't believe it! You're just a little kid! How could you be the new partner with Microsoft?" questioned the blond, flapping his arms at Artemis, which gave the Irish boy the distinct impression that he was a bird, attempting to fly.

"'How could I be' has a simple explanation to it, I invented software that Microsoft found revolutionary and wanted to buy," Artemis replied to this disagreeable youth, wondering where on earth Butler was and why he wasn't there to escort this man off the premises, "It really isn't too much to wrap one's mind around, at least the general idea of it is, but if we were discussing the actual hardware and formatting that had to be done, that would be all together too much to discuss in one sitting. But, I do doubt that this is what we are, in fact, chatting about."

"But, you're a little kid!" the young man said, sounding slightly dumb founded at the explanation that he was still trying to figure out given to him by this black haired youth.

"I'm the respectable age of fourteen, and not only that, but I'm five feet five inches, and still growing," Artemis replied as calmly as he could, when he was thirteen, he had been considerable short for his age which miffed him to no end, but then he got a growth spurt about half a year ago and he had since been sprouting up like a weed-much to Angeline Fowl's distress. "But, excuse me for my rudeness, who are you, my short tempered acquaintance?"

"I'm Nick Hanselman, and I was supposed to get the partnership with Microsoft," ranted the blond boy. Artemis, who was only half paying attention to the boy, flipped his phone out of his pocket, which looked like a sleek black retracted pen until he clicked the small button of the side and a holographic screen flashed out that the boy easily typed away on.

"Are you-?" began the blond, about to ask if the Irish boy was listening to him (the obvious answer was 'no') before noticing the screen and saying, "What is that?"

"This is just one of the cell phones in the Artemis Fowl line, the Pen-Pal," Artemis replied a little airily before seeming to have found something interesting on the screen and saying, "Let's see, Nicholas John Hanselman…son of Christine and Eric Hanselman, both well known socialites and retired designers at Microsoft, you attended a prestigious elementary schools before attending a bordering school in upstate New York. You are going into your final year at MIT and at the top of your class. Due to your excellence in computers, you were to have a deal with Microsoft come next spring, until I came along."

"How did you know all that after one minute?" squeaked Nick, sounding a little stunned since he was pretty sure that no website had all that information of him on it and Artemis couldn't have possibly gone to more than one page in that amount of time.

Artemis ignored the boy's question once again, letting his mind try to unravel the mystery, before flipping off his phone and the hyper search it was running on 'Nick Hanselman' and stockpiling all the information onto one page, before sliding it once again into the pocket of his black slacks. Instead the boy replied, "But I wouldn't be too worried, Nick, your mum and dad are in no shortage of money and will, no doubt, be able to cover your needs until your death. Now, please, enjoy the exhibition."

With that, Nick wandered off in a bit of a daze and Artemis turned to see Butler standing next to him. "What a disagreeable young man," Butler observed.

"How long have you been standing there?" asked Artemis with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Long enough to hear you make the boy mentally unstable," Butler replied, trying to hide a grin.

"Right," Artemis said a little lamely before adding, "Well why didn't you do the pleasure of escorting him off the premises?"

Butler shrugged before saying, "It was entertaining to watch you deal with it instead."

Artemis opened his mouth to protest but, just then, Butler's phone began to buzz and a concerned look came across his face. His phone had been set to emergency call only, so this must have been something that would kill the light-hearted mood. "Hello?" he asked after he clicked it on.

"It's been what?" Butler nearly shouted, and luckily, all the attendees were too occupied with the Artemis Fowl Technology that no one noticed. "Are you absolutely sure?" questioned the mountain of a man after a pause.

"What do you mean you don't know how long it's been gone?" Butler raged.

There was a buzz of a voice from the other end and then Butler sighed and said, "Hold on, let me talk to Master Fowl about this."

"What is it, Butler? Problem?" questioned the black haired Irish boy, sounding a little nervous since Butler never got angry.

"Yes," the older man nodded before adding, "Your prototypes have been stolen and we don't know how long ago it was done."

Artemis' face paled a bit at that, if that was even humanly possible. There were two sets of the latest line of Artemis Fowl technology, one was the prototypes in the exhibition hall that would be used for mass production and for the public to play with, the other was his own personal set that only he was allowed to handle. It had all sorts of blueprints, hardware, and diabolical plans that were only meant for the eyes of Artemis Fowl. It had been locked up with the greatest care and guarded by one of Butler's trusted associates back in their suite at the Plaza, and the fact that it was stolen was utterly preposterous but seemed to have happened, despite all of Artemis' precautions.

The Irish boy knew he should've checked to make sure it was there that morning before he and Butler left for the Microsoft Building; but sleep had been a welcome relief after the long day of flying and conferences the day before and he had discovered a new found love for eggs and bacon at breakfast and had been running late as it was. For all he knew, it could have been stolen the moment he locked it up and left it yesterday afternoon. He knew he should have rewired the hotel's surveillance cameras or set one up of his own; but of course, time was against him.

"Sir? Should we call the police?" Butler asked.

"No, I'll deal with this after the exhibition. I don't trust anyone but you and myself in finding them, and since neither of us can leave at the current moment, we must wait. Not to mention the police are always useless in any country," Artemis replied, shaking his head as a grimace spread across his face.

Butler looked like he wanted to protest before he seemed to sigh a bit and said, "Yes, sir." He relayed this into the cell phone as Artemis moved off to talk with the people that were inspecting his latest technology.

What most people crowded around was the three monitors that were the main piece of tech in the Artemis Fowl line. It would completely modernize the use of technology, not only did it no longer need keyboards or a mouse, but one could type in front of the screen like on a keyboard and it would register the letters. When you moved your hand in front of it, it was like a mouse, it was also touch screen and responded to any voice command. It was the View Space and some of Artemis' finest work-and to the public eye it was his finest-and he secretly thought of it as his baby.

As soon as he came near enough, the enthusiastic Microsoft employees ensnared him, all bombarding him with questions or just generally gushing about the technology. Trying to forget the latest mishap he had to deal with and the pure murderous rage he felt for the man, woman, or fairy, that stole his personal tech; he put on as best of a smile as he could and answered their questions patiently, feeling a bit like a proud father gloating about his talented child.

After going around to reach display and talking with every person once, some more than that, the head of New York office captured everyone's attention when he said, "Now, everyone, if you'd be so kind as to take a seat, it's time for Master Fowl's presentation."

Artemis politely said goodbye to the man he was currently talking with and made his way hurriedly over to the stage, not realizing he had let time get away from him that much. Butler appeared at his side as he went, but remained at the foot of the stairs onto the stage when Artemis ascended them.

The Irish boy shook hands with the head of the New York office before striding over to the podium and going through his notes one last time to make sure all was in the right order. He then checked the small black sphere sitting of the podium that he tapped on its side, making sure it registered he was the only operator of it as it scanned his fingerprint. He then came out from behind the podium and set the sphere down. Little silver legs slid out of the sphere to keep it from rolling off as Artemis returned to his notes.

As everyone took a seat and settled down, Artemis cleared his throat and said, "Hello everyone, and welcome to the first showing of the new Artemis Fowl software in New York City." There was some clapping to this before Artemis continued, "My name is Artemis Fowl, and I'm here to introduce you to the next advance in technology."

He then pointed to the small sphere and a little cover on the top slid into itself to reveal a lens that immediately began to glow. The holograms that appeared in the air, about three feet above the sphere itself, were completely three-dimensional, no glasses need, and filled half the hall, making the attendees jump in surprise or look even more fascinated. "This is the Projection Probe," Artemis introduced as a digital version of the Projection Probe appeared, "It can be used for home theatres, presentations, or even a movie outdoors. It is a projector with its own high definition sound system and is easy to interact with. The one drawback is that it can't be used when wearing gloves because it can't sense your fingerprints."

As Artemis was describing this, his fingers danced in the air, first making a popcorn machine pop up for the home theatre with popcorn that seemed to be raining down on the attendees, then a slightly twitch of the fingers and a very professional looking graph appeared that moved as numbers changed and then finally it projected a thousand stars into the room with another flick of Artemis' hand. When he mentioned high definition, the hologram changed to a scene from the newest Star Trek movie when the Enterprise was escaping an explosion and it was like sitting in a movie theatre hearing the explosions and music. Not only that, but it seemed the explosion was jumping out at the audience members and like they felt the heat of it on their faces. Artemis finished this off with another flicked of his hands and flipped to the picture of the View Space that exited the screen when he moved his hand to the side as if on a turn table and another of his devices appeared, the Prof's Assistant, which was a compact professional camera that also could film Hollywood-quality movies with its built in microphones.

"Now, this is the Prof's Assistant, for all those professional photographers and aspiring ones," Artemis said as he tapped the air and the projection zoomed in on the camera and the specs appeared with another tap. "It is a compact professional camera that takes better pictures than that of a camera with all those bulky extra lenses. It also has video capabilities that allow-"

Artemis was cut off when the main doors to the exhibition hall were thrown open and a brown haired woman dressed smartly even though she was wearing a black skirt and gray short sleeved shirt with a ruffled neckline, which was nice outfit to suit the sweltering heat, walked confidently in. (Thankfully the Microsoft Office building had a very, very powerful air conditioner.) Behind her trailed a brown haired man with blue eyes dressed in a dark blue polo and long khaki shorts, who looked a little dazed by all the tech that greeted him while the woman was unfazed. Artemis immediately recognized the man, but he wasn't quite sure who, exactly, this woman was.

"What is the meaning of this?" Artemis said, irritable that he was cut off after being on such a roll with his presenting and not feeling as socially awkward as he usually did. "How dare you disturb my presentation."

"This is NYPD; Artemis Fowl the Second, you are under arrest for murder," the brown haired woman said after she had made it about half way into the room and stopped to stare coolly up the Irish boy.

Artemis glanced over at Butler, who looked tense and caught his eye, "Did I order someone killed?" asked Artemis quietly, only loud enough for Butler to hear, skepticism clear in his voice since murder wasn't his style.

Butler shook his head and shrugged slightly, it seemed he didn't think so either. With his mouth pressed into a grim line, Artemis turned back to look at the brown haired woman and the polo-clad man. This day was going to be more interesting then he had thought.

* * *

A/N: Hey, royalmagician here! I hoped you liked your first taste of Artemis. I know I liked it. And maybe you're wondering how Detective Beckett and Castle knew to arrest our favorite criminal mastermind, well, you'll have to wait for the next chapter! (mwhahahahaha!)

Thank you for reading and please review!


	4. Chapter Three

Disclaimer: Not our's!

**Chapter Three**

Detective Beckett wandered around Drew Whitmore's apartment Monday morning searching for any possible leads. CSU technicians were already combing the three rooms, checking for anything that might be evidence.

"He seems pretty organize for a distressed bachelor," noted Beckett to herself, observing the neatly folded clothes and the general freshness of the space.

"Maybe he kept a day planner somewhere," said Castle, coming in the door carrying two coffees and passing one on to Beckett.

She nodded and took the offered coffee. "Thanks."

"Where are Esposito and Ryan?" asked Castle, scanning the apartment himself.

What his eyes saw was a dark and modern place but still homey. The place still had hints that a female may have once lived there with a touch of pink in one of the paintings on the wall and a bouquet of dead flowers in a vase. Other than those two touches however, the rooms were completely masculine with dark blues and browns. A large chair that had, apparently, been a favorite, sagging in the middle, sat in the room that Beckett and Castle were in. A large T.V. was facing it with a couch over to the side and the walls were lined with bookshelves lined with random trinkets. The sitting room linked to a kitchen on one side and the bedroom to the right of it. A CSU technician was in the bedroom doing some kind of search.

"Those two guys are at Zabar's, seeing if anyone can remember what our victim did or if he met anyone," said Beckett, her eyes followed Castle's gaze into the bedroom and she sighed. "CSU is sweeping for blood but my gut tells me we won't find anything. The doorman out front said no one had come up to the apartment since well before our murder. He said our victim came in a little after lunch time and then went out again soon after that and never came back."

"With what we learned about our victim yesterday," said Castle, musing as he stared intently at nothing, "It almost seems like our victim would be more likely to _be a_ murderer than _be_ murdered."

Beckett nodded, "If we had found the girlfriend's body or the rich lover, we would definitely have a stronger case, but I'm just not seeing who'd want to kill this guy."

Castle made a noise of thought as he wandered away to the kitchen, leaving Beckett in the living room. She walked over to a small desk in the corner, on top of it was a day planner and she gave a small smile. Castle right with his hunches again.

Flipping through it, she saw it was organized, meeting times and names written next to each date. She flipped back to the day before and saw that Drew Whitmore had carefully written in the time of the brunch with his siblings, but the rest of the day was blank. No luck there. Still, she handed over the planner to one of the CSU techs to take in evidence for later; something useful might still be in it.

"Look!" came Castle's voice from the kitchen, "He left his cell phone here!" Castle walked back into the living room, showing the cell phone to Beckett.

Taking the phone from him, she flipped it open and glanced through the received calls list. Again nothing really popped out at her, but it seemed he had missed a call from his sister, but since he had left his phone at his apartment when he went out for his last walk that was to be expected. Sliding the cell phone into an offered bag from one of the CSU technicians, she sighed.

"What I don't get," began Castle, "Is that this case has the makings of a hit and run. It seems completely random but then someone tried to move the body and Artemis Technology was put on it. It's almost as if…" Castle's voice tried off and he frowned, "No, that doesn't make sense. Even to me."

"What? Trying to frame Artemis Fowl?" joked Beckett, keeping her voice light.

Castle looked at Beckett and shrugged, she bit her lip, thinking over what she had read last night, but pushing that thought to the back of her mind, it was just too ridiculous.

"Detective Beckett," said a CSU technician, a young woman with a hard face, "No blood was found anywhere in the rooms."

"Thanks," said Beckett and the tech nodded before going back to help pack up.

"Now what?" asked Castle, sipping his coffee.

"Now we head back to the precinct and compare notes with Ryan and Esposito," said Beckett, remembering to take a sip of her own coffee, "Once we get together all we have, we might-" but her voice was cut off by her phone ringing.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she flipped it open, "Beckett," she answered and paused listening to the voice on the other end. Castle watched as her eyes widened and she nodded. "Be right over," she said and hung up.

Castle shot Beckett a questioning look as she powered out of the building, calling after her for the CSU techs to finish cleaning up. "They've found another body," she told Castle, whose eyebrows arched up as he followed her out of the apartment and to the waiting car.

After about a forty-five minute drive through the central Manhattan Island, the pair arrived at the Puck Building on Lafayette Street. Esposito and Ryan were waiting for them, and the four walked into the historical building as Ryan reported.

"The manager at Zabar's remembers seeing our victim at around 2:30 p.m. on Sunday in his grocery store," Ryan said as the quartet entered the lobby, "Our victim brought some essentials; bread, cheese, hot dogs, fruit, some milk and left. The only weird thing he remembers about our victim was that he bumped into someone wearing a trench coat as he left. He remembered it because, who would wear a trench coat in the summer?" Beckett shot a significant look to Castle and then nodded to Ryan to continue, "The guy in the trench coat wandered around the store for a minute but then left without buying anything, going in the same direction as out victim. A sketch artist is working with him right now to see if we can get a picture of the guy."

"Good work guys," said Beckett as they rounded a corner and spotted Lanie in the middle of the dance floor of the grand ballroom, hunched up over a body. The quartet quieted as they approached the new crime scene.

This time, it was an African American woman in a formal business outfit, with a gray pencil skirt and blazer. Her heels were the only thing about her that she allowed herself to show her own personal flair a little, as her makeup and outfit were reserved in that she wore bright red shoes. The nametag on her blazer read 'Adrienne Gleeson.' On her face was a pair of aviator sunglasses.

"She was killed the same way, a shot to the chest," said Lanie, looking up to glance at the quartet as the three detectives and Castle arrived. Beckett glanced down to check the wound and saw a hole as if it was burned there, right at her chest. Again, there was a contact wound where the muzzle burned the skin.

"Do you know what the weapon is yet?" Beckett asked.

"Laser gun!" Castle chimed in.

Lanie ignored him and shook her head, "What's more, if this body was killed by the same weapon, I probably won't find a bullet."

"Come again?" said Esposito, as they all paused, trying to take in what they just heard.

"If someone was shot at this close range there would have to be a bullet," said Beckett, looking down at the body with renewed interest.

"There was no bullet," insisted Lanie wearily before glancing at Castle, "I hate to admit it, but Castle's idea is starting to seem like the only possible answer." Castle almost squealed with joy and traded a round of 'feeding the chickens' with Esposito and Ryan.

"Anything else you can tell us about her?" asked Beckett, massaging her temples.

"Based on lividity and temperature, I would say this person was killed sometime this morning, between eight and nine o'clock. The man who found her works here and clearly, she does as well," said Lanie, nodding to the nametag and then over to a well-dressed man who stood with a group of three police officers, trying to keep the man calm. Beckett nodded Esposito, and he left to ask the man what he had seen. "From what I can tell, this body was killed here and left."

"Thanks Lanie," said Beckett. "I want CSU to sweep this room, we might be able to find some physical evidence of our killer if there was a struggle and get a list of anyone that had access to this space at that time," she directed Ryan.

"Have CSU look at the sunglasses too," added Castle and Ryan and Beckett glanced at him questioningly. "Those sunglasses that she has on her face are men's Ray-Ban sunglasses."

Back at the precinct, Beckett added a new face, a picture of the most recent victim, to the white board. Picking up a dry erase marker, she prepared to take notes about the victim from what Esposito had to report.

"Ms. Gleeson's assistant was the one who found her," said Esposito, reading off his notes to Beckett and Castle. "Ms. Gleeson is the manager of the Puck Building's banquet halls. She got into work around 7:30 this morning to help prepare the hall for a wedding reception this evening. Apparently, she was waiting for the wedding planner to arrive when she was killed. Her family lives out of state and they have been notified. We've gotten a hold of her roommate, who also works at the hotel at the concierge desk. She's over in the waiting area with Ryan, answering some more questions. He's also going to show her the sketch from the grocery store to see if she recognizes the guy and he'll ask if she knows Drew Whitmore."

"Did the CSU search reveal anything?" asked Beckett as she wrote down on the whiteboard what she knew about the newest murder.

"There was blood splatter around where the victim was found but other than that, nothing," said Esposito before adding, "There wasn't any sign of a struggle. So maybe the killer took Adrienne by surprise?"

"Or she knew him," murmured Castle.

Beckett nodded and wrote 'knew killer?' next to Adrienne's picture. "Where are we on the list of employees in the building?" she asked, stepping away from the white board to look over her work.

"Right here!" Esposito said, flourishing the list. "Only six people were in that area of building at that time and one of them is Steven Walsh, a security guard, who happens to be on parole for manslaughter charge with a gun."

"Bring him in," ordered Beckett as Esposito nodded and left, passing Ryan as he returned from questioning the roommate.

"Emma Bates, the roommate, says she doesn't know who Drew Whitmore is and she doesn't recognize the picture of the man from the grocery store," reported Ryan. "She doesn't know of anyone who'd want to hurt Adrienne, apparently she was nice boss. Emma was at the concierge desk the whole time, right in view of the security camera."

"Have CSU run through that footage, just in case, but I doubt we'll find anything," ordered Beckett and Ryan nodded, turning to go boss the CSU people around a little.

"Where are we on the prints on the technology," Castle swallowed a lump in his throat, "and the sunglasses? Do we have any DNA from our killer from the trench coat?"

"We have DNA from the coat, but we don't have anyone to compare it to," replied Beckett, scowling at the whiteboard. She hated this moment in the case, when it felt like there was nowhere to go.

"And the prints?" repeated Castle, probing. He knew she was hiding something from him.

"That's where it gets interesting," said Beckett, sighing and leaning back on her desk before looking over at Castle. "The prints match each other."

She paused, unsure what to tell Castle. "And?" he prompted.

"They match Artemis Fowl," she concluded.

Castle gaped for a second and then blinked, "How do you even have Artemis Fowl's prints to compare them to? I mean he's _Irish, _isn't he?"

"I got them off an Interpol file," replied Beckett, frowning.

"A fourteen year old as an Interpol file?" asked Castle, almost yelling. "I knew this kid was into business, but, wow…"

Beckett nodded, "He also has a laundry list including espionage, trafficking stolen goods, and theft. But the report was pretty vague, I don't know if everything he has done is on the list or if everything listed is true," said Beckett, exasperated.

"And what could an Irish boy have to do with an unemployed accountant and a hotel ballroom manager?" asked Castle, just as confused as Beckett felt. "Have we looked through the victims' financials at all? Maybe they got involved in something big."

Beckett scanned over her notes. "CSU is running that right now, but I don't think we'll find anything. We're missing something, I know we are."

"But what?" Castle asked needlessly. Beckett just shrugged.

"Hopefully this interview with Steven Walsh will pan out."

Just then Esposito walked in, escorting a tall, white male in handcuffs.

"Were we supposed to arrest him?" muttered Castle to Beckett.

"He probably resisted coming in," Beckett muttered back, staring at Esposito, who gave her a subtle nod. "We'll let Ryan and Esposito handle this guy."

A few minutes later in Interrogation Room One, Esposito and Ryan sat across the table from the bulky Steven Walsh. His hotel uniform was ripped from where Esposito had to tackle him and a slight bruise was forming on his right cheek.

"So why did you run, Walsh?" asked Ryan as Esposito just glared quietly at the guard. Castle and Beckett watched from behind the one-way mirror, observing to see if they could catch something the two interrogators missed.

"Old habit," muttered Walsh before settling back into silence.

"You're going to get yourself into a whole lot of trouble if you don't let that habit die," replied Ryan. "So, tell me what you did this morning when you got to work."

"I got in around 6:30, I did my rounds, and went to my post. I did a sweep of the area every forty-five minutes after that, nothing seemed out of the ordinary," said Walsh, shortly.

"Did you see Ms. Gleeson come in?" asked Esposito testily.

"Yeah, she came at 7:36 and then went into the grand ballroom to set up a few things. At around 8:15 she went to the lobby to wait for the wedding planner," answered Walsh, tonelessly. Beckett nodded, that matched up with what the manager told them already. "I was doing my rounds and was back at my post at 8:30. I didn't see anything strange until the guy came in, telling me about the murder."

"You didn't hear anything? No shouting or a gun shot?" asked Ryan, incredulously.

"No," said Walsh, face blank.

"I have a different story in mind," said Esposito, eyes hard on the guard. "I think you were the one that killed Ms. Gleeson. Face it, the story you just gave us is pretty flimsy."

Walsh's eyes suddenly lit up, "What? Hey, I barely knew her! Why would I kill her?" he said, livening up suddenly. "I thought I was just here to check up on my parole."

Beckett and Castle traded exasperated looks while Ryan seemed to struggling against face-palming, Esposito, on the other hand, snarled. "Do you routinely _run_ when going to your parole meetings?" he questioned.

"Old habits," Walsh said, this time sounding more apologetic.

"Okay, look, so what did you know about Ms. Gleeson?" asked Ryan, shooting a look to his partner to calm down.

"Well, she seemed nice, but like I said, I barely knew her," replied Walsh. "We work in different divisions of the hotel. I don't even report to her unless a guest is causing a problem. The reason I didn't hear anything was because I…"

"You were?" prompted Esposito after taking a deep breath to calm him down.

"You won't tell my boss, will you?" asked Walsh.

"No promises," said Esposito.

Walsh glanced from Ryan to Esposito and back again, finally, he sighed, "I was visiting my girlfriend; she works in the kitchens. I got to talking with her and lost track of the time. When I realized it, I rushed back to my post to meet the guy talking about a murder." Walsh slumped back in his chair, rubbing his eyes.

"We're going to see if your story checks out," Ryan said, standing up from his chair.

"So, don't leave town," advised Esposito, finishing the statement.

* * *

"I hate stupid people," muttered Esposito as he slumped down in his desk and heaved a final sigh.

"I don't think that was our guy," said Ryan in way of reply as Beckett and Castle filed out of the observation room.

"Check with the girlfriend just in case but, I think we just lost our last lead," said Beckett as she erased Steven Walsh's name from the board. Ryan quickly dialed in the hotel's number to check-up on Steven Walsh's alibi.

"Well, we still have one lead," said Castle, sitting in his chair and crossing his legs. Esposito and Ryan turned to peer at him as Beckett sighed, exasperatedly. "Artemis Fowl," finished Castle, unnecessarily.

"I still don't think Artemis Fowl has any connect to our two victims," said Beckett.

"But we do have some of his personal equipment, it would be a shame not to return it to him," Castle said, smirking slightly.

"Castle's got a point," Ryan said, covering the mouth piece of his phone as the hotel searched for Walsh's girlfriend. "It is the only lead we've got left."

Beckett sighed before walking over to her desk to grab her keys. "Who wants to catch a child genius?"

* * *

A/N: This was hillyhp250 writing for you! Next chapter will be a joint effort; be sure to stick around for when Arty gets interrogated. Thank you for reading and leave a review!


	5. Chapter Four

Disclaimer: Do not ownz! (RM says: I heart honey-milk!)

**Chapter Four**

As soon as the elevator doors dinged open, the young genius was greeted to the sight of a worn and somewhat messy bullpen, with detectives and officers milling around, looking up something on their computer monitors or escorting a suspect sporting handcuffs. Artemis Fowl glanced down at his newly acquired silver accessories and once again regretted telling Butler to stand down and let this Detective Beckett cuff him, to reasons unknown to him, other than he was being charged with murder. At the current moment, his bald bodyguard was waiting anxiously in the lobby of the precinct, only after being restrained by a platoon of cops.

"Are you going to tell my why I'm here other than some audacious murder charge, Kathryn?" Artemis asked smoothly as he sauntered along beside the brown haired detective, looking for all the world that it was _his_ idea to be in handcuffs.

Detective Beckett arched her eyebrow to peer down at the boy, "Master Fowl, you may have the income of some small countries, but to me you are one of two things: the person who's going to help me crack this case or the one who's going to make it much more complicated. Make it easy on yourself and be the one that helps and I won't have to prosecute you for obstruction of justice."

Castle, who walked on the other side of the boy, listened to the two banter and smiled. He glanced over at Esposito as they passed his desk and mouthed 'popcorn' as Beckett ushered Artemis-a little more gruffly than necessary-into the Interrogation Room.

Artemis just held his peace and walked calmly over to the cool metal chair that the woman gestured for him to sit in, looking at it a bit distastefully before muttering something about 'Americans with no taste' and sat down. He waited, courteously, for both Castle and Beckett to sit down before he said with his famous cat-got-the-canary smirk, "Now Kathryn, or may I call you Kate? It is quite obvious to both you and me that I didn't kill anyone, and thus have no logical reason to be down here. So, in that light-and since you want me to cooperate with you-I think it wise for you to drop this whole 'tough cop' routine you have going and just try to be civil. Not to mention that your prosecutions of obstructions to justice and your legal systems couldn't touch me, since as you so kindly pointed out, I do have the income of a small country. Correction, several small countries. Although, I must say, it was a nice little act you had."

Beckett's mind was sent reeling as she tried to marshal arguments to address each of the boy's points, but as he kept talking her mind simply couldn't keep up and she was left gaping at the fourteen year old. Castle, however, was not quite as speechless. "He talks a lot for someone under five foot five," he observed, glancing at Beckett before turning back to the boy. "I believe _Detective_ Beckett did have probable cause for arresting you, and if you would listen for a minute, she would explain."

"And I'm surprised you can form words for someone who only got drool on their I.Q. test," Artemis retorted, smiling inwardly at his own joke and finding it frankly disappointing that no one else got it.

Beckett gritted her teeth and looked up at the suspect, secretly hiding a smile over Artemis' insult of Castle. "Look, you guys, we're not here to compare wealth or I.Q. scores, we're here to solve a murder."

Artemis slightly sighed, already grieving the loss of getting to exchange insults with one of the greatest mystery writers of his time before he continued, "But, it's really not hard to guess why I'm here now is it? My stolen technology, the only real thing that has happened of interest during my brief trip in New York, unless you count the exhibition, but I certainly don't."

Beckett nodded in acknowledgement before pulling a bag containing the Projection Probe and another containing the aviators out of a box underneath the table. Both were covered in dust, clearly showing fingerprints on both. "These were found on the bodies of both victims and they are the only lead we have. Coincidently, the fingerprints lead to you."

As soon as the boy genius' eyes fell on the evidence bags, Castle and Beckett could've sworn that his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. His hands shot out, unhand-cuffed—much to the surprise of both the adults—but neither had time to dwell on it since he had snatched up the Projection Probe and said in an icy cold voice, that both Esposito and Ryan who were in Observation Room swore froze over the one way mirror a bit, "Is that _dust_ on the Projection Probe?"

"They were evidence in a murder," began Beckett but Castle cut her off, saying, "For to the record, I didn't want them to do it!"

"DO YOU TWO KNOW WHAT THIS IS? IT'S MY OWN _PERSONAL _PROTYPE!" Artemis shouted while ripping open the evidence bag and began to wipe off the Probe with a loving hand. "D'ARVIT!" he screeched once again, which made Castle and Beckett blink. By the way he said it, they both could easily guess that it was a very colorful word in some strange language, and both were unanimously glad they didn't speak _that _language.

After the Probe gave off a little, sad sound and a feeble spark Artemis nearly roared, his eyes caught sight of the gold-rimmed Ray-Bans, and if it was even possible, he gave an even more voluminous screech, that would send anyone in the vicinity's ears ringing for a good hour after, "FOR THE LOVE OF COMMANDER ROOT! THESE ARE MY SUNGLASSES! THAT DIRTY, SON OF A-" the Probe sparked, conveniently at that moment as if self-censoring Artemis as he continued on, "HE STOOL NOT ONLY MY TECH BUT MY SUNGLASSES? THAT'S IT, I'M GOING TO FIND THAT-" Spark! "AND I'LL-" Spark! "HIS APARTMENT! AND THEN, I'LL-" Spark, Spark, Spark! "THAT HE WON'T BE ABLE TO WALK ANYMORE! SEE WHO MESSES WITH MY SUNGLASSES _THEN_!"

Beckett sat and smiled at the young genius, enjoying seeing him act like a regular teenager, if somewhat like a _female_ teenager, Castle, on the other hand, was smirking and scribbling down some excellent quotes for his newest…novel.

After a moment of further unbridled rage from the teenage boy, he pulled his hand over his face in order to center himself and gave a long, calming exhale before saying, back in his cool voice, "Excuse me for my brief, uh, outburst. I assure you that all those threats were…hypothetical," he paused before adding in a low voice, "Maybe."

The Detective continued to smile and nodded at him, pulling out her folder from the box from underneath the table. "As you can see, Master Fowl, that is why we need your assistance," said Beckett in a soothing voice, opening the folder and pulling out pictures of the two victims. "Our crime scenes were meticulous except for these items," she gestured to the Probe and the aviators, "The only lead we had at this point was you. And let's face it, your Interpol record, which had your prints, didn't make you out to be the cleanest of child geniuses."

"How on earth do you have my prints?" asked Artemis, a little distracted since he had started to fiddle with the Probe, which was beginning to give off sounds like a dying bird and expelling tiny mushroom clouds of smoke, glancing up at Beckett to arch an eyebrow at her before returning to his work.

"They were in your Interpol file," reiterated Castle, watching with interest as the boy genius fiddled with his Probe.

"Along with an impressive laundry list of some of your more, shall we say, finer works," continued Beckett.

"Such as?" prompted Artemis as he set the Probe back on the table with a small sigh as if mourning the loss of a dear pet.

"Like carrying out an espionage mission against M-16," Beckett began, which earned her a slight chuckle from Artemis like he was remembering some fun times, "Black-mailing the Prime Minister of France, stealing the Hope Diamond, buying out the Italian Mafia and running it yourself-merging it with the Irish Mafia-."

"Alright, I see your point," Artemis said, cutting her off, looking a little miffed that she had all this information on him and he hadn't even gotten a chance to get a complete synopsis of her life on his Pen Pal.

"Oh, wait!" Castle said like a little child listening to a bedtime story with both hands propping up his chin and a look of sheer delight on his face, which earned him a glare from Artemis. "We haven't even gotten to the part about holding the Emperor of Japan hostage."

Artemis rolled his eyes at that while muttering something about annoying Japanese news anchors before saying, "That was a complete misunderstanding. I simply wanted to chat with him. Privately. On my own terms. And just because Butler had a gun didn't mean that the whole Japanese government and then the U.S. Navy had to make a huge deal about it. The guy's a figurehead!"

Castle blinked, and then scribbled something down on his notepad while Beckett could see why Artemis had caused such a hubbub, since he just managed to insult all of Japanese culture. Castle, meanwhile, questioned, "A butler named Butler? Isn't that a bit redundant?"

Beckett rolled her eyes and snapped, "Not the point, Castle. Murder." She then leaned forward on the table, tapping each picture with her index finger and said, "Our murderer is somehow connected to you. Do you recognize either of these people?"

Artemis slowly shook his head as he, for the first time actually looked at the pictures, and said, "No. I don't deal with little people." Beckett pursed her lips but Artemis continued to frown at the pictures, not noticing her reaction.

"What about their names? Drew Whitmore or Adrienne Gleeson?" asked Castle, hopefully.

"No," Artemis shook his head again before asking, "How were the killed?"

"A single wound to the chest," said Beckett vaguely before she stopped.

"Well? What did that wound look like? Size of bullets?" the boy prodded, looking back up at his two 'interrogators.'

Beckett sighed, running her fingers through her hair in frustration before Castle finally said, "It looked like a laser gun." His mouth was twisted in a triumphant smile, but there was also a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

"Laser?" questioned Artemis, face suddenly neutral as he blinked at the author.

Castle nodded, looking hopefully at the boy and adopting puppy-eyes as if begging it to be true. Artemis glanced at Beckett to see her give a reluctant nod in support of what Castle said, before she added, "No bullet was found in either of the victims or their crime scenes."

There was a moment of silence, in which everyone's mind-gears were turning. Castle was cooking up all sorts of plots related to laser guns and high-tech hi-jinks while Beckett was trying to come up with a possible answer that didn't include laser guns, once again. Artemis in the meantime took the moment to formulate a plan.

"How can you be sure that the killer didn't just remove the bullets after the initial attack?" he asked carefully, raising an eyebrow at the pair and trying to milk them for information.

Beckett blinked, her mind cranking as well, before saying, "The wound would have shown evidence on a removal but we both there was no removal needed. What aren't you telling me, Artemis?"

The boy slightly grinned at the Detective before responding, "Now, wouldn't you like to know, Kate?" he then pushed himself up from his chair and said, "Well, this has been fun and I thank you for all the valuable insight; not to mention a completely riveting afternoon. But I really must be off; Butler might be getting worried and might do something unspeakable to one of your people downstairs. Good day to you, Rick. Kate."

Artemis scooped up the aviators, slipping them over his eyes-which Castle had to admit looked fabulous on him-before cradling the still sparking Probe and striding over to the door. Beckett stood up and cleared her throat, making Artemis pause. "If you want the stolen technology back that the murderer still has, _Arty, _you'll have to tell us what you know."

The boy genius turned to look at her and said, "Trust me, Detective, I can find this murderer just fine and get back my property on my own, with the assistance of Butler, of course."

Castle stood up as well, looking curious more than concerned and asked, "How can you be so sure?"

"I didn't call for a lawyer, did I?" Artemis questioned in form of reply before saying, "I can take care of myself. Now, good afternoon Detective Beckett and Mister Castle."

He disappeared from the doorway and proceeded to stride down the hallway, towards the elevators, with Castle and Beckett peering out at him as he went. "What do we do?" Castle asked, a little lost.

Beckett just adopted an equally cat-got-the-canary smile that the young Fowl wore and stepped into the hallway, and called after the boy genius in a commanding voice, "I don't think you understand me, Master Fowl. You will not get back _any _of your property unless you tell us what you know. Your property is the center of a murder investigation. Remember that obstruction of justice charge? Even if you can buy your way out of it, it will be extremely complicated and time consuming, and by the end of it you will still not have your property back, especially if this case isn't solved."

Artemis just gave her a raised eyebrow before slowly removing the aviators, bending down and placing it along with the Probe onto the ground, like he didn't care a wit about them. He then turned and continued to stride down through the bullpen, shoving some officers away from the elevator so as he could board alone. As the doors slowly slid closed, a smirked spread across his face. Both Beckett and Castle couldn't help wonder who had won here.

"I feel like we just sat in a room with a boy who's going to be the Supreme Overlord of the world someday," quipped Castle, half joking, half serious. Beckett just stared at the elevators, mind working a thousand different angles at once, absently nodding to what Castle had just said.

* * *

As the elevator hummed down the shaft, Artemis' mind was working a mile a millisecond, processing all the new information and putting the fine details into his plan. Just as the elevator dinged the floor below the homicide offices, his phone began to play 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' by Daft Punk. He sighed and slid the Pen Pal out of his pocket and clicked it on.

"What?" Artemis barked into the phone, already knowing exactly who was on the other end.

"Nice to hear you're in such a cheery mood," quipped the familiar voice of Foaly.

"Just tell me what you want, I think I might have a migraine if I have to deal with any more witty comments from people," Artemis hissed into the phone, earning him some strange looks from the officers that boarded at the third floor.

"Alright, alright," Foaly's voice came from the other end before adding, "The murder of that case you were called in for? Yeah, he has some old LEP tech and we need you to get it back for us."

"Foaly," the boy genius said, ignoring the fact that Foaly had known he had been-briefly- accused of murder, "Two questions: how did that happen and why should I?"

"How, we're not too sure of, we're working on it now, actually. But it seems it's an older model of the Neutrino. And why because if we found the Mud Man murderer ourselves, the Mud People police would get suspicious and we can't just mind wipe the whole NYPD, since if we just mind wiped that Detective and her little boyfriend, then others would get suspicious. Then others, and others, and, well, you get the point."

"No, I mean why should I help you out, Foaly?" Artemis asked before pausing as he stepped off the elevator and greeted Butler in the lobby with slight wave of his free hand before leading the way out to their waiting car and asking, "How about this, I'll help in this investigation and get the Neutrino back for you if I get the prototype of those mesmer-intensifying goggles you're working on."

"How did you know about the goggles?" brayed Foaly from the other end.

"I hack into your files, you hack into mine. I just do it better," Artemis shrugged before adding, "I thought we went over this already."

"Okay, okay, deal. But you're going to have to sign contract saying you won't use it on fairies," Foaly said with a sigh as Artemis stopped in front of the car, not wanting to climb in until the conversation was over, since he had a feeling he wasn't going to be getting in anyway.

"Then I'll see you when I have that Neutrino for you," the boy replied with a self-satisfied smirk before switching off the phone with a 'bing' and turning to Butler saying, "Change of plans. You go back to the hotel and assist in the search for the technology."

"Sir?" Butler replied, his unspoken question of 'do you think that's safe?' summed up in that one word.

Artemis smiled at the older man and rested a hand on his big shoulder, saying, "Old friend, this building is crawling with police, I'm more than protected. Right now, I need as many leads as I can get on who stole the tech, and I can only leave that into your capable hands."

The big manservant nodded a little reluctantly before escorting Artemis back to the doors of the building, just to be safe.

* * *

Ryan and Esposito filed out of the Observation Room a few seconds after the elevator doors slid closed, both looking slightly impressed despite themselves.

"The kid's tough," noted Ryan with a respectful nod while squinting at the doors.

Esposito scowled, glancing back at the Interrogation Room and then looked at Becket and Castle, muttering, "His parents probably didn't beat him enough when he was a kid."

"Cheer up boys," said Beckett, smiling thoughtfully. "This wasn't a complete loss."

Esposito huffed, "How do you figure that?"

"Well, we now know Fowl knows what the murder weapon is," pointed out Castle making a laser gun with his fingers and providing appropriate sound effects.

"And we know, he knows more about this case then he's telling us," added Beckett, rubbing her brow wearily, the Interrogation tired her out.

"Along with that, he has a rap sheet that could make even Al Capone cry," Ryan added.

"That he freely admits to," Esposito said, smirking. "What do we do next?"

"Next, we need to secure the evidence, before someone steps on it," Beckett said, gesturing for Ryan to retrieve the discarded evidence bags from the Interrogation Room which were in somewhat of a sad state. "And make sure they're secure. Fowl will back to get these, one way or another."

As Ryan went to retrieve the aviators and Probe after getting the bags, Castle snickered and said, "I wouldn't put it past him to use 'another' method." Which earned him a 'feeding the chicken' from Esposito.

Beckett smirked and walked back to her desk, settling down in her chair, glancing over at the whiteboard. Castle plopped down into his chair next to her and folded his hands over his stomach while giving her a look. She sighed, "We need to figure out what weapon was used to kill our victims. It's rare, clearly, from Fowl's reaction, and whoever has one is probably not supposed to have it. We need to get feelers out for this weapon and see where that leads us."

Esposito nodded, from his position beside the whiteboard, and said, "Got it," before retreating to his desk, where Ryan soon joined him with the evidence.

"We also need to figure out the connection," pointed out Castle. "Nothing has popped so far?"

"No, nothing besides the Artemis Fowl property and his finger prints," replied Beckett with a weary shake of her head and a sigh.

Just then the elevator doors dinged opened and Castle glanced up and said, "Speaking of a certain child genius." Beckett turned and couldn't believe her eyes when the boy strode into the bullpen, with his same commanding air about him. She knew he'd be back, but not this soon.

"I'm helping," Artemis said shortly.

"Whoever said we needed your help?" asked Beckett with a defiant tone.

"I said I was helping," the boy said, as if this was obvious, "and it wasn't a request or friendly suggestion."

"Yes, we gathered that," Castle said smirking and arching an eyebrow before asking, "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Aren't there some insurance waivers I need to sign?" Artemis said, glancing around like he expected them to pop out of nowhere and completely avoiding the question.

"Okay, I get it," Beckett said as she pushed herself up from her desk, "You're not answering questions, but, listen to me as I tell you this; we are working together on this, and you need to trust me if we're going to bring this murderer to justice. That means we tell each other everything we need to know. And you follow my orders when I give them, as much cloak-and-dagger as you do, I do things legally."

She looked hard at Artemis, making sure the boy genius met her eyes. She didn't talk down to him; this was adult-to-adult, and that recognition of her doing so sparked in the Irish boy's blue eyes. "Deal?" she questioned and offered her hand to him.

The boy smirked once again and accepted her hand saying, "You drive a hard bargain, Kate, but I'll have to accept."

"Oh, and you can't call me Kate, Arty," she added, giving Artemis' hand a firm shake.

"Or me Rick," added Castle, but everyone just ignored him, except for Artemis who's gaze shifted to him for the slightest of moments and gave him the tiniest of winks, before returning his look to Beckett and said, "I think that's far enough, Detective Beckett."

Castle tilted his head slightly and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at the boy genius, oh yeah; this was going to be the best case ever.

* * *

A/N: Hello! Royalmagician here! I penned this chapter-mostly-with hilly's help with Castle, Beckett, Esposito, and Ryan. (And an occasional Arty line) I loved writing this chapter-nearly keeling over from sheer joy when I heard hilly say Arty's lines in her Irish accent (try it, it makes this chapter AWESOME!)-and I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading and REVIEW! Pleeeeaasseee! (If you do, next time I'll tell how my marry-Artemis-Fowl-operation is going! :D)


	6. Chapter Five

Disclaimer: Not our's! (RM says she's trying rig a blind date)

**Chapter Five**

Beckett trotted down the stairs, body sweating after her morning workout, damp towel slung around her neck. Some detectives these days relied too much on their guns, Beckett wanted to be sure to defend herself at all times. Her breath came in gasps, not quite recovered from her workout. She wanted to check in with Ryan and Esposito downstairs before she got ready for the rest of the day.

Finally, reaching the homicide bullpen, she stopped with a gasp. Artemis Fowl stood next to the whiteboard, working at a monitor that had no keyboard. Artemis' massive bodyguard stood to his side, coolly scanning the bullpen with a sharp eye. The boy genius' fingers furiously typed at the space before the screen, and somehow the letters magically appeared on monitor. His eyes flicked back and forth, taking down verbatim what was written on the white board. Every so often, he'd take a picture of the board with his pen-like camera phone in order to capture a picture of one of the victims or crime scenes, which he immediately transferred to his monitor. The rest of the office had been drawn to the boy's demonstration like moths to a light bulb, and Beckett shook her head a little before smirking and approaching the boy.

"Nice toys," commented Beckett, reading over the boys shoulder. Artemis Fowl's spidery fingers paused in midair as he glanced over at Beckett, new gold Ray-Bans on his face, smile mischievous.

"Your colleagues seem to like it as well," noted the boy before turning to finish typing down the rest of what was written on the white board.

Beckett glanced over her shoulder to the staring officers before flapping her hand, encouraging them to move on. There was a brief rush of motion as all the officers dispersed in various directions; Artemis just continued smirking.

Beckett turned to scan the mountain of a man that stood to Artemis' side, really looking at him for the first time. She had a guess who the man was, but it would have been nice to be introduced. She glanced down at the young child genius who was intently focusing on his work and sighed, politeness seemed to take second place when there was work to be done.

Approaching the tall figure, Beckett stuck out her hand. "Detective Kate Beckett, it's a pleasure to work with you."

The man grunted, head about a foot higher than Beckett glancing down to look at her. There was a pause before Artemis sighed, eyes still glued to the glow of his screen. "Do be polite, Butler."

Butler stuck out his hand and shook Beckett's own, completely engulfing her hand in his baseball mitt-like one. "Pleasure," he replied, deep voice rumbling.

Beckett's brows knitted as the giant released her hand.

"We had a bit of a problem down on the first floor," Artemis noted, still typing. "The guards there were convinced Butler was some kind of criminal. I had to call your Captain Montgomery in order to get clearance." Beckett glanced over to the Captain's office. He was watching the pair and arched an eyebrow when he saw Beckett looking. "I'm afraid Butler took it a little personally," finished Artemis, glancing at Beckett, eyes glittering dangerously behind his sunglasses.

"I'm sorry for that," said Beckett, keeping her face composed, as he she glanced from Artemis to Butler. "The officers on the first floor help make sure people aren't supposed to be here aren't. They have been trained to be cautious."

Artemis seemed to mull things over before he nodded, shooting a quick look to Butler, and resumed his typing.

"I need to go change," said Beckett. "Castle should be here any minute and then we can get going."

Artemis gave a subtle nod as Beckett turned on her heel to leave, remembering as she walked away that she hadn't talked to Ryan or Esposito, but also realizing it was too late to turn around now. Mere seconds after Beckett disappeared upstairs, back to the locker rooms, the elevators dinged open to reveal Castle carrying two cups of Starbucks coffee. He stepped off the elevator before glancing around, scanning the bullpen for Beckett. When his eyes fell on the technology that a certain boy genius had brought, he almost dropped the coffee as he nearly sprinted to Artemis' side.

"Thank you, Castle," said Artemis, taking the coffee from Castle's left hand before taking a sip and wincing, continuing his typing one handed. "American coffee—how do you people drink this stuff?—but I suppose it'll have to do," said the boy over Castle's spluttering as he took another sip.

"That was mine!" Castle finally managed. "And, I would have you know, that is the finest quality Starbucks coffee." He ended in a mutter, only just realizing that his protest didn't support his point at all.

"Do you want to play with the View Space?" asked Artemis, taking another sip and wincing before stepping away from the monitor.

"Yes," said Castle quickly, forgetting any protest as he plunked the other coffee onto Beckett's desk before whirling back around to the View Space. He stood, poised, in front of the monitor, fingers twitching in front of the screen.

"Make sure you don't break it," added Artemis as an afterthought, taking another sip of coffee.

Castle stopped from lowering his hands, mock-glaring at the boy genius, "No pressure," he muttered dryly, continuing to carefully lower his hands and cautiously pulling up a list of tools and games on the View Space. His eyes scanned over each application as he flicked the screen, revealing more and more apps, until his eyes finally lit up and he selected one of the icons. A pin-ball like screen appeared on the View Space and Castle released a ball from a cannon, allowing it to bounce off the various pegs on the screen, and aiming for the sliding basket at the bottom.

"Peggle? Really?" asked Artemis, eyeing Castle over his sunglasses.

"Come on, you know what happens when—," Castle began.

"Castle, what are you doing?" cut off Beckett as she came back down stairs from the locker room. She wore a thin black pencil skirt and a comfortable green short sleeve top. Her auburn hair was loose and it touched her shoulders.

"Ah, Beckett, your coffee is on the desk," said Castle, not answering the question. Suddenly the game began to blast the "Ode to Joy" as Castle cheered, "Yes!"

She rolled her eyes, walking over to her desk before sitting down, taking a sip of coffee, and sighing, just the way she liked it. She looked up and nodded to Esposito, who had been eyeing the giant bodyguard warily from over his desk.

"This is Butler," said Beckett in way of introduction as Esposito approached.

"Hello," said Castle, pausing the game and running his eyes up the monstrous form of Butler and giving a nervous smile. "Somebody has been eating his red meet."

"If we're all here, Detective?" prompted Artemis, glancing around at the group.

"We'll get started," finished Beckett, yanking Castle to stand next to her before he did something that might annoy the tall bodyguard. "Quick recap," began Beckett, waltzing over to stand next to the white board as Artemis flicked his fingers to show his copy on the View Space. Beckett quickly and efficiently summarized what was known about the two victims, somewhat surprised as Artemis just listened, eyes flicking between the solid white board and his digital one.

When Beckett finally concluded, Artemis finally spoke up, "And no connections have been found between these two people?"

"Other than your technology on the two bodies, no," said Beckett.

"Background checks as far back as grade school haven't revealed anything," noted Esposito, thumbing through his handwritten notes. "And neither families of the victims recognize the other's names."

"They lived on different sides of the city and worked in completely different fields, no connection there either," added Castle.

"Except how they were killed," Artemis noted, face twisting into a thoughtful smirk.

"So the connection is the killer," summarized Castle. "We find the killer, we find the connection."

The elevators dinged open and Ryan walked into the bullpen, followed by the man from Internal Affairs that Castle recognized as the one that had helped him sign his life away. The I.A. officer clutched a stuck of papers that made Castle wince from memory.

"Here's Officer Arnold," introduced Ryan as he joined the group. The I.A. officer hovered over Ryan's shoulder, face telling everyone that he took his job very seriously. "He'll help you fill out all the papers you need to before you can join us on this case," Ryan added, glancing at Artemis and then to Butler, taking a step back as he did, slightly shocked by the size of the man.

Beckett and Artemis snorted in unison; neither could tell how you could miss Butler, before they traded a look. Castle's eyebrow arched as a smile appeared on his face before vanishing again.

"Lead the way," Artemis finally said and Officer Arnold nodded before leading the Irish boy genius and the giant into the waiting area. Castle and Beckett trailed behind them.

A few minutes later, Artemis and Butler sat at a table with legal documents spread before them, beginning the tiring process of signing their lives away. "If you get injured in anyway," dictated Officer Arnold solemnly, "You cannot sue the state." Castle and Beckett stood to the side, watching as the boy and his servant began scribbling down their information onto the papers. "If you become paralyzed or maimed, you cannot sue to state." Artemis nodded absent-mindedly. "If you are killed," at this, Artemis looked up to smirk at the man as the officer plowed on, shooting a nasty look to Castle, who grinned, "your relatives cannot sue the state. You must follow the orders of Detectives Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito."

"Mostly," Castle interjected and Beckett elbowed him in the ribs.

"They will do their best to make sure you stay safe," finished the officer, a vein throbbing in his temple and his teeth gritted. Artemis and Castle traded a mischievous look as Beckett's phone rang.

Any mischief fled off of Castle's face as he watched Beckett answer the phone. Artemis paused in signing the papers, watching Beckett, his eyes sharp.

"Beckett," she answered, eyes hard. "Got it," she responded then, after a second, gasped, losing her cool for a second, which made Castle blink. "We'll be right there," said Beckett, a new fierceness in her voice that Castle hadn't heard since their run with the 3XK. Hanging up her phone, Beckett turned on her heel, swinging out the door and into the bullpen.

"Another one?" asked Castle, jogging after her.

"Where?" Artemis called after them, furiously scribbling onto the documents under the stern eye of the I.A. officer.

Beckett nodded and then muttered something that Castle couldn't quite believe, "Microsoft Office building, on the Avenue of Americas."

* * *

Police tape completely blocked off one corner of the intersection of 6th and West 52nd street, bringing traffic to a crawl as New Yorkers gawked before continuing on their lives. The body was directly at the corner, so as many people could see it as possible. Her black hair coiled underneath her and her slightly tanned skin went well with her hazel eyes that stared blankly up at the sky. Doctor Lanie Parish carefully examined the body, as she did the last two, trying to shut out the commotion of the lively city around her.

"Same as last time?" asked a voice and Lanie looked up to see Esposito with Ryan standing next to him. She nodded grimly.

"The witnesses who saw the body fall are right there. It seems it was carried here again," said Lanie, pointing to a group of Japanese tourists who were huddled nervously with a police officer. Ryan wordlessly split off to question the witnesses as Lanie continued talking, "Her work I.D. was in her pocket, it looks like she worked at the Microsoft Building."

Esposito took the I.D. from Lanie's hand to examine it more closely before he too nodded and went into the skyscraper to find out more about the woman. Lanie had enough time to pluck at the tan blazer the woman wore, pulling it away to reveal the wound before another police car pulled up and Beckett and Castle hopped out, pulling on blue examination gloves as they hurried over.

"Sorry we took so long to get here," said Beckett, eyes alight as she gazed from Lanie to the body, "we had to get our new carry-ons situated." Castle stared at the surroundings as Lanie began to talk.

"Same M.O. as last time; an unknown weapon, fired at point blank range to kill the person instantly. Based on temperature and lividity, I would say this happened thirty to forty minutes ago. Ryan and Esposito are already canvassing the surroundings. The work I.D. on the body said that this was Vanessa Sanchez. She worked at the Microsoft Office," finished Lanie, gesturing to the building behind Castle.

"There's a difference this time," Caste noted, and Beckett nodded, turning to examine the busy street as well, "This time, he's not just sending a message to his victims, he's sending message to us."

"He's telling us that he won't stop unless we stop him," concluded Beckett. "And he's getting reckless, poising a body here where hundreds of people could see it."

"He's getting bolder," said a young voice from behind the trio and all three turned to look and saw Artemis Fowl, eyes hidden behind his sunglasses, with his giant bodyguard at his side. "I've never written so fast in my life, but here I am."

"Doctor Lanie Parish, may I introduce you Artemis Fowl and, uh, Butler," introduced Beckett as Doctor Lanie's eyebrows jolted upward quickly at the boy genius' name.

"Yes, my prints were the one's found on the previous victims," acknowledged Artemis.

Doctor Lanie cocked her head to the side and then smiled—Beckett would need to fill her in later. "It's nice to meet you," Doctor Parish finally said. "I would offer to shake your hand, but under the circumstances…"

"It's quite alright," responded Artemis smoothly. "So, where are we?" asked Artemis.

"Same M.O. as the last two," said Beckett, looking down to check with Lanie, who nodded, "It was a single shot to the chest with our unknown weapon."

"Our witnesses said that the victim seemed to stagger out of the building before collapsing on the sidewalk," said Ryan, leaving the witnesses to report to Artemis, Beckett, and Castle; Ryan looked at Lanie, who shook her head

"Nope, our body was killed and then moved," she confirmed.

"So, our Invisible Man killed our victim inside Microsoft Office and then moved her out here to make a display," said Castle.

"How can you kill someone inside a computer software program?" asked Ryan and then traded feeing the chicken with Castle while Artemis watched them, slight confusion and interest on his face.

"Was anything of mine found on the body," asked Artemis, after a pause, while poking his sunglasses back up his nose.

Lanie's hands quickly patted the body before pulling what looked to be a digital camera out of the victim's blazer pocket. Artemis' brow furrowed as he grabbed for the camera.

"Ah," said Beckett, slapping the boy's hand away before he could touch the camera. "Gloves," she told him, pointing to a box one of the CSU officers had. Artemis took out a pair and pulled it on grudgingly, rubbing his latex covered fingers together for a second before grabbing the camera.

"It's the Prof's Assistant," he said quickly, his fingers finding the emblem that told him the device was his and rubbing it. "It's the finest camera on the market," he said, a hint of pride in his voice.

One of the CSU techs wordlessly held a bag in front of Artemis and the boy genius gave the man a cold look before dropping the camera resentfully into the bag. Beckett swallowed carefully before muttering, "We'll try not to damage it." Artemis gave a small nod, eyes still following the tech. She sighed. "So, anything else about our victim?" she asked as Esposito jogged up in time to hear the question.

"Oh yeah, Vanessa Sanchez was the head of Hardware Development here. They recently had to let go a lot of their department when Microsoft bought the Artemis Fowl tech," said Esposito, glancing at Artemis before continuing, "Her husband also works here but in Customer Services. Ms. Cleary, Mrs. Sanchez's secretary, was the last to see Mrs. Sanchez alive. They're up on the 26th floor at Mrs. Sanchez's office, and," he said, pausing dramatically and smirking, "there's a video camera that caught the whole thing."

Beckett's eyes lit with a fierce fire as she nodded, "we should go pay them a visit, then." She gave Lanie's shoulder a squeeze of thanks before leading the way into the office building trailed by Castle, Artemis, Butler, Esposito, and Ryan.

* * *

The group filed off of the elevator and spread off to their specialties. Ryan went to talk to the secretary, a pretty woman with platinum blond hair in a formal blue business suit. A man stood by her side, awkwardly patting her shoulder as the woman sat stunned. _That would be the victim's husband,_ noted Castle.

Esposito and a couple of the people from CSU broke off to find the security room that monitored Mrs. Sanchez's office and Beckett's group containing everyone else filed toward the office with Mrs. Sanchez's name outside the door. The door itself was partially opened as Beckett pushed it the rest of the way, leading the group into the office. The room provided a floor to ceiling view of the skyscraper across the street as well as the traffic below. The CSU technicians began to comb the room, but nothing seemed to be too disturbed.

Castle and Artemis headed toward the desk, eyes observing the fact that the papers were slightly ruffled. "This is probably where our victim was killed," noted Castle and Artemis nodded, turning to observe the swivel chair behind the desk.

The chair was turned to the side as if the last person to get in it had just gotten up out of their desk and would be back soon.

"A preliminary sweep shows no blood," noted one of the CSU technicians to Beckett.

She nodded in thanks as Ryan came in the room. "Ms. Cleary says that she checked in on Mrs. Sanchez around 10:00 for a coffee run and she was working in her office. When Ms. Cleary came back at 10:25, the door was ajar but Ms. Cleary thought Mrs. Sanchez might have gone to the bathroom. She didn't know anything was wrong until Esposito came up here and told her about Mrs. Sanchez's body on the street. Mr. Sanchez last saw his wife this morning when they came to work together around 9:00."

"Did you get anything about those people that had to be let go?" asked Beckett.

"Yep, we got a list right here," said Ryan, flourishing a list in front of Beckett's face.

"Good," said Beckett, running her fingers through her hair as she thought. "We'll start making phone calls and running financials when we get back to the station."

"Beckett," came Esposito's voice as he peaked in from the hallway, "you're going to want to see this."

Beckett nodded, directed the CSU guys to finish up and followed Esposito out of the victim's office and down the hall to the security room for the floor.

The room was lined with computer screens which showed various scenes from around the office. Artemis concealed a snort at the outdated technology not wanting to antagonize the man who sat in front of the one blank screen in the room. The man was scrawny and scruffy who nervously watched the group file in and, when Esposito nodded, began to fiddle around with the blank screen.

"Here's the view of Mrs. Sanchez's office at 10:00 this morning," said the guy, pushing his glasses up his nose as he pulled up the needed footage and pressed play.

The clip began running, showing Ms. Cleary peek into the office before closing the door again. "Nothing unusual happens until 10:10," said the computer guy, scrolling the bar over to the appropriate time. When he pushed play again, the door seemed to swing open by itself and then close again. There were a couple minutes of what appeared to be normal behavior until Mrs. Sanchez emerged around 10:20 limp, apparently being carried by someone before the body turned and headed out of sight of the camera.

"The murderer took the body down the stairwell so we don't have any more footage of the body being moved," said the tech guy, pushing his glasses up his nose with a sniff.

"This video doesn't have sound does it?" asked Castle. The tech guy shook his head "no".

"Have you tried to slowing down the clip?" asked Artemis suddenly.

The tech guy blinked before he shook his head again. "No, our cameras don't have that feature."

Artemis rolled his eyes and then looked to Beckett. "If I may have a chance to look at that footage with my equipment, I may be able to get a look at our murderer."

Beckett nodded, promising herself that she would make Artemis tell her how he knew slowing down the clip would allow them to see the killer, before she turned back to the tech guy. "Well, you heard him, we'd like to look at that clip more closely, please," she ordered, offering out her palm.

The tech guy pushed his glasses up his nose a final time as he swallowed, pulling out a flash drive to save the file to. Artemis just smirked as Castle eyed the boy curiously, wondering the same thing Beckett was wondering.

* * *

A/N: This was a long chapter and, believe it or not, it originally was going to be _twice_ this length, so be happy with where it is. Thanks for all the reviews, alerts, and favorites, we love them so much! Another update is on it's way, so please leave a review!


	7. Chapter Six

Disclaimer: Not our's! (RM says that blind date went well and it wasn't even awkward with Butler standing there the _entire_ time! Yay!)

**Chapter Six**

Back at the police station, the bullpen was a hive of activity. Now that the detectives had more leads to follow up on—the list of names, the footage Artemis was playing with—a new energy had entered the case. They were like hounds who had caught the scent of a fox and they weren't about to let go. Esposito and Ryan sat huddled at their desks, running through the list of names, dialing down-sized employee after employee. Nothing had hit yet, but they kept stubbornly calling the numbers.

Castle and Beckett hovered over Artemis' shoulder as he worked on the View Space. Butler stood to his master's side, coolly observing the surroundings. The boy genius, who had found a swivel chair to his liking, was working on the clip of the victim's office, adjusting settings, carefully selecting the clip he needed, watching and re-watching the same clip, looking for something that only he knew about.

Finally a vague form began to take shape as the clip of the door opening and closing, seemingly by itself, was slowed down. Beckett felt her jaw drop as a man in a jump suit, wearing a pair of goggles slowly took shape, moving slowly into view before opening the door to let himself in the office and slide it shut behind him.

"Got you, you bastard," muttered Castle as Artemis gave a satisfied smirk before running the clip forward a couple minutes to see the man in the jumpsuit carrying the dead Mrs. Sanchez out of the office. Artemis paused the video to stop on the picture of the man's face. Even though the face was partially obscured by goggles, Beckett could make out a young, Caucasian male, roughly 24 years old. Brown hair poked out from underneath the full body jumpsuit. He was shorter than Mrs. Sanchez's roughly 5'8" frame, the high heels probably helped, which placed him around 5'6", just enough to carry the woman but still have her feet drag along the ground.

Artemis selected the man's face before zooming in on it, adjusting the quality as he went, but his technology could only take him so far. He muttered darkly about out of date cameras before he turned to smirk, feeling quite pleased with himself, to Beckett and Castle.

"So cool," Castle murmured.

"How on earth did you know to slow down the footage?" asked Beckett, impressed nonetheless.

Artemis' eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses so Beckett couldn't quite read the boy's expression as he said, "I've seen this technology before."

"It's not yours, is it?" pressed Beckett, eyes looking over the man in the picture, more interested in the criminal than in the suit he was wearing at this point.

"No, it's not mine," said Artemis. He opened his mouth to say something else and then thought better of it, closing his mouth again.

"How does it work?" asked Castle curiously.

"The suit allows the particles of the wearer to vibrate very quickly, faster than the human eye can see, making the wearer invisible," said Artemis, keeping his voice light.

Castle nodded his head slowly as Beckett continued to stare at the man, trying to guess what the rest of his face looked like behind the goggles. She shook her head in slight frustration before looking to Artemis. "If you could isolate that face, we could get it out to all the beat cops," said Beckett.

"Done and done," replied Artemis smoothly before spinning back to face his computer screen.

"Beckett," said Esposito at that moment. Beckett turned to see a victorious look on Esposito's and Ryan's faces.

"All of the people that were let go from Mrs. Sanchez's department have been accounted for except one," said Esposito, showing Beckett the list of names with one name circled—Jason McArthur.

"Have you tried finding his next of kin?" asked Beckett.

"We've gotten hold of his mother," said Ryan. "She should be here soon and we've got something else you should see." Ryan looked quite pleased with himself as he gestured Beckett over to his desk.

Beckett obliged, rounding the corner of his desk to look as his computer screen. Ryan had apparently accesses Microsoft's old employee record. On the screen was an employee I.D. for Jason McArthur. A little bar at the bottom of the screen told Beckett that he was no longer employed for Microsoft, but that wasn't what interested Beckett at the moment.

"There you are," muttered Beckett, a wolfish smile twisting over her face as she scanned the picture of the man. It was their jumpsuit-wearing murderer.

Castle slid a newly printed photo of the jumpsuit guy next to the photo I.D. of Jason McArthur. It was a match. He beamed at Beckett as Artemis slid around to look at the I.D. as well, his face blank, but, if his glasses had been taken off, a victorious light would have been seen in his eyes.

Beckett let the triumphant moment live for another minute before she gave a firm nod. "Okay, boys, calm down, we've got a lot of work to do," said Beckett. "I want an APB out on this guy as well as photos out to all the beat cops. Where are we on connections to our other victims?" asked Beckett, jolting everyone back to action.

"I'll get right on that," said Ryan as Esposito's phone rang.

He answered it and then nodded before adding, "Sure, send her up." He glanced at Beckett once he hung up the phone, "Mrs. McArthur is here, Jason McArthur's mother."

Beckett nodded in response before turning to the elevators, letting her excitement about having a good suspect bubble down before she went to talk to the mother. Sometimes this confrontation was worse than when Beckett had to talk to the family of the murdered victims. Castle walked steadily by Beckett's side, an excitement in his eyes—he liked solving cases just as much as Beckett did. Artemis paced on Beckett's other side, face neutral and silent.

The elevator doors slid open as the trio approached and a woman in a rather ill fitting dress emerged. Her hair was gray, limp, and tired, like her eyes. She looked like someone who was completely worn out with life. Beckett allowed the thought to dance across her mind before she brushed it away and strengthened her resolve. "Hello, Mrs. McArthur, I'm Detective Kate Beckett." Beckett introduced herself, shaking the mother's hand.

She nodded weakly as Beckett introduced Castle who shook her hand as well. "And this is—," said Beckett, turning to introduce Artemis.

"Stefan Bakshir," said Artemis, adding a perfect Russian accent to his English as he shook Mrs. McArthur's hand. Castle and Beckett traded a confused look before shrugging in unison. "I'm visiting to see how homicide detectives work in the United States," continued Artemis, offering a rather charming smile, slipping off his sunglasses to look at the woman in the eyes.

Mrs. McArthur simply nodded as Beckett gaped for a minute before swallowing and leading the woman to the waiting room off of the bullpen. "If you'll just follow me, we'll go somewhere quiet where we can talk," said Beckett, ushering Mrs. McArthur with a hand supporting the woman's back as Castle and Artemis trailed behind.

Castle arched an eyebrow at the boy as if to ask "Stefan, huh?" Artemis just replied with a scowl before quickly wiping his face clean of the emotion as he entered the room.

Beckett had already gone to close the door on the far side of the room. Artemis went to assist the woman onto the couch as Castle closed the door behind himself before sitting in the chair across the couch from the woman. Beckett sat down in the chair next to Castle and Artemis took a chair slightly out of the circle, keeping up the appearance of being there to merely observe.

"Mrs. McArthur, this morning Mrs. Sanchez was murdered in her office," Beckett began, voice soft to lessen the blow of her words. Even so, Mrs. McArthur flinched and then gave a slow nod of understanding. "We have reason to believe that your son many have been involved in the murder. When did you last see him?"

At this, Mrs. McArthur's head jolted up to stare wildly at Castle and Beckett. "My son? A murderer?" she asked, stunned. "He couldn't be!"

"Tell us a little but about your son," said Castle, voice soothing.

Mrs. McArthur glanced wildly from Castle to Beckett and back again before she swallowed. "He was such a sweet boy," she said, her voice taking on a mothering tone as she thought of her son. "He was shy but very smart. He always had a knack for computers, ever since he was little. When he got a job at Microsoft developing key board designs, it was a dream come true." A few tears leaked out of her eyes but then they hardened as she looked up firmly to meet Castle's gaze. "But after Microsoft bought that _child's_ new technology, that Artemis Fowl, well, they didn't need keyboards anymore and they let my son go." Venom dripped from her voice. Castle glanced to Artemis whose face was a mask of polite interest.

"We tried to contact your son today, but we didn't get a response," said Beckett, her voice gentle.

"He's been busy most days, trying to find a job," said Mrs. McArthur, venom gone from her voice, replaced by weariness. "He hasn't found anything yet."

Beckett gave a slow nod, finishing up her notes as she looked up at Mrs. McArthur to give a small smile. "Once again, I'm so sort that you have to go through this. We'll do our best to make sure justice is done." Beckett held back a wince, knowing her words weren't much of a comfort.

Mrs. McArthur nodded on reply, face miserable, clearly Beckett's words were about as effective as she thought they would be.

"Thank you for your help," said Castle as the woman stood to show herself out.

There was silence in the room as the three thought over what had just happened. "So, Stefan?" asked Beckett, face twisting into a smirk as she turned in her chair to look at Artemis.

He slipped his glasses back over his eyes, a confident smile on his face. "It's simple really," began Artemis.

"He gave a false name so as to not throw off the investigation," Castle said cutting off the boy genius who scowled at the author before continuing. Castle merely smiled.

"That man was let go soon after Microsoft's purchase of my technology," continued Artemis, explaining himself, shooting a glare to Castle every few seconds, "and he worked in the Hardware Development division, so it was likely he was let go _because_ of the purchase. His mother would most likely be upset about that and, probably more so, at me. Therefore, in order to ensure that the interview went smoothly, I thought it best to use a pseudonym."

Beckett gave a slight chuckle before shaking her head and standing to leave. "We need to get a warrant for Jason's apartment, but it probably won't go through until tomorrow," she said as she left.

Artemis and Castle stood at the same time to follow Beckett when Artemis reached out to stop Castle. "How did you know?" asked Artemis simply, face blank.

"I'm an author," said Castle just as simply in reply, whistling a little tune as he walked around Artemis' arm and left the room. "That was a good Russian accent by the way," he added, calling over his shoulder.

Artemis scowled after the child-like man. Americans.

When Artemis finally joined the rest of the group in the bullpen, everyone was more frenzied than ever before. A picture of Jason McArthur was now plastered to the whiteboard under the Suspects label with the pertinent information written underneath. The timeline of the last hours of Drew Whitmore had been scrapped in favor of a timeline of what Jason McArthur had done in the last week or so.

"Where are we on the connections to our victims?" asked Beckett, taking a step back from working at her whiteboard to glance over to Esposito and Ryan.

"Apparently Jason went to the same elementary school as Drew Whitmore and his siblings. Thomas Whitmore admitted he used to bully Jason McArthur," reported Ryan.

Castle's eyebrows jumped as his eyes lit up, a story cranking in his mind.

"And Ms. Gleeson?" prompted Beckett.

"She was supposed to be Jason's date to the prom junior year, but she turned down his offer," responded Esposito. "Adrienne's brother remembers Jason being kind of a creep."

"And the last one was the one who let him go from his dream job," concluded Beckett.

"So? He's killing a bunch of people from his past?" asked Artemis, somewhat irritated that this was all this case boiled down to.

"Oh, my dear Artemis," said Castle, eyes dancing with the story as he patted Artemis on the head. A brief, vexed expression splashed over the boy's face as Castle continued talking, "it's so much more than that. Jason McArthur is a true troubled soul. Even when he was young, he never quite fit in. Oh, he tried. He acted like the cool kids; maybe he even convinced his mom to buy the knock-offs of the more popular fashions, but even in the elementary school, they saw through his charade and teased him mercilessly for it. Thomas Whitmore and his friends would bully him endlessly and so little Jason would take to hiding in the computer lab, spending time alone and discovering his love for computers. It was then that he promised himself that when he became powerful, he would take down the person who made him feel so small."

Castle's voice had adopted a subtle low quality, flowing with the story he was weaving. "Then, in high school, he found his first love, a Miss Adrienne Gleeson. She was young, pretty, and probably nice to him occasionally, and that was all Jason needed before he became obsessed with her. He convinced himself that she loved him just as much as he loved her. However, when she refused to go with him to the prom, she became another person on his list of people he would take down. He worked hard and eventually got his dream job at Microsoft but, when they bought the Artemis Fowl technology, Mrs. Sanchez decided that Jason was expendable and fired him. Well, that was the last straw and Jason decided that if he was going down, he would bring down the people on his list with him," concluded Castle.

Artemis gaped for a second and then smiled. "I can see how you stay employed."

Castle gave a impish smile and nodded, acknowledging the compliment.

"Because Drew and Thomas are identical twins," Beckett mused, "Jason must have accidently killed the wrong twin."

Castle nodded sadly for a second before Ryan spoke up, "that doesn't explain where Jason got his Inviso-suit or the weapon."

"We're missing a link," muttered Artemis, turning to stare hard at the whiteboard.

"Hopefully we'll find it in Jason's apartment tomorrow," said Beckett wearily.

"So we're done for the night," reasoned Castle as Butler finally stirred from his guard position by Artemis' technology to go stand by his master.

Artemis nodded formally. "See you tomorrow, detectives, Castle." And the boy turned on his heel, the giant bodyguard trailing behind him as the two headed for the elevator.

"See you at the murderer's apartment?" asked Castle with a charming smile.

Beckett nodded, feeling her breath catch for a second. "See you."

* * *

CSU technicians were at Jason's apartment bright and early. It was a small one-room affair with a kitchen on one side of the room and a bed on the other. Dirty clothes littered the floor. A door on the far side of the dim room was cracked open to a bathroom that smelled like it hadn't been cleaned since the apartment was purchased. A laptop sat on the bed and looked like the only thing in the room that was decently cared for.

Beckett scanned the area as her people looked for something that might link the victims definitively to Jason more than just Castle's story. "Anything you can find: files, pictures, phone numbers, anything that links to our victims," Beckett reminded the team as they worked.

"The room seems to be pretty clean," said Esposito after doing a quick preliminary search of his own. Beckett nodded.

"You started the fun without us?" came a voice behind Beckett and Esposito and the two turned to see Artemis and Castle with identical pouting expressions on their faces walking down the hallway. The giant Butler, ever present with his master, brought up the rear.

"There isn't much fun to miss," Beckett responded as the pair approached, both grabbing gloves from an offered box. "This place seems to be pretty clean."

Castle peeked in the room and sniffed. "I hope you mean 'clean of evidence'," he said, making a face at the smell.

"Has anyone tried looking at the computer yet?" asked Artemis, eyes landing on the technology.

"CSU looked at it already. It's password locked. We'll need to get it back to the precinct before we…," explained Beckett, her voice trailing off as the boy strode across the room, touching as little of the dirty laundry as possible. Swiftly contemplating the unmade bed, he shoved some dirty clothes onto the floor, wiped his gloved hands on the bed spread before he settled down on the bed, flicking the laptop open. Castle wandered over to Artemis' side, watching the boy's thin blue-gloved fingers scramble over the keyboard.

"I've talked to the neighbors," said Ryan from Beckett's side and she turned to acknowledge him, "the last anyone remembers seeing Jason was last Sunday."

"Thank, Ryan," said Beckett before looking back at Artemis and Castle.

"What's Artemis doing?" asked Ryan as if he didn't quite believe what he was seeing.

"I believe he's hacking," said Beckett, flashing a quick smile to Ryan before heading over to the pair. "Want to come watch?" she asked over her shoulder.

"I think I'll just keep talking to the neighbors," said Ryan, face stunned. It freaked him out a little how smart and conniving that boy was.

Over on the bed, Artemis had easily broken through Jason's meager defenses before you could say "outdated". Castle watched from over Artemis' shoulder as the boy searched the computer for any pertinent files. The searching took a matter of seconds and nothing relevant was found.

Artemis then pulled up the Internet browser and began to type. "Oh, try that thing with the Internet search history," suggested Castle, poking the computer screen.

"I know," said Artemis a little testily. It was uncomfortable having the man breathing on his shoulder. Castle got the message; leaning back a little bit as Beckett approached the pair, hands on her hips.

"Found anything?" she asked, watching Artemis.

"Nothing yet," muttered Castle at the same time as Artemis said, "Yes."

Castle leaned forward again to see what Jason had been looking at last. "This is it," said Castle eyes glowing.

"A name search, an address run through Google Maps, a picture of the building where the second victim worked, this has everything!" said Artemis, allowing a little excitement into his voice.

"Excellent," said Beckett. "Let's take this in as evidence. Did you find any clue as to where Jason might be right now?"

Artemis' brow furrowed again as he leaned into the screen. His eyes scanned the browser history and he frowned before shaking his head. "Nothing that looks promising."

Beckett let loose a sigh as Castle leaned back. Artemis continued to search, the computer screen reflecting off his sunglasses.

"We could always try his mother again," suggested Castle half-heartedly.

Beckett nodded to Esposito who stood over her shoulder.

"Got it," said Esposito before turning to flip open his cell phone to dial Jason's mother. The detective went out into the hallway to get some privacy.

Beckett gave a frustrated sigh. "How are we supposed to find an invisible man?"

"With an invisible net?" Castle tried, face half-joking, half-serious.

Beckett and Artemis rolled their eyes in unison as Castle gave a self-satisfied smirk. "What we need is to figure out where he normally goes," Artemis reasoned.

"Or if he did something out of the ordinary recently," added Beckett, nodding her head.

"So we need to talk to his friends as well as his mom," said Castle.

"From the look of this guy, he probably didn't have many friends," Artemis muttered, nose twisting in disgust.

"But something tell me that he's a mama's boy," said Castle, eyes trained on Esposito as the detective re-entered the room.

"Jason's mom remembers that Jason started going to Central Park his last week of work and, after he was dismissed, he would spend hours there," reported Esposito.

"I think we may have found our hideout," said Beckett.

"Makes sense," mused Castle, "there's probably hundreds of places to hide in Central Park, especially for someone invisible."

Artemis stood, firmly closing the laptop before picking it up and passing it over to a waiting CSU tech. He pushed his glasses coolly up his nose. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

* * *

A/N: And here's the second part of the giant update! RM will be taking the next couple chapters, so expect more Artemis goodness. Thank for reading and please leave a review!


	8. Chapter Seven

Disclaimer: Not ours!

* * *

Chapter Seven

"I feel like a criminal sitting back here," grumbled Artemis as Butler nodded in agreement with. The boy genius eyed the old, beaten patrol car a little distastefully, deciding that for Beckett's birthday he was giving her a new car if it meant that he wouldn't have to be associated with someone that owned the current hunk-of-junk he was riding in.

The four of them were currently maneuvering through the New York traffic, en route to the famous Central Park to scourer the place for possible hide-outs, which Artemis wasn't too keen about. Outdoors really wasn't his thing. Sure, he was up for sitting around in bogs and tromping through ant hills if it meant he was going to catch a fairy or occasionally going on a horseback ride. But searching the Park on foot, in his ridiculously expensive loafers, didn't exactly sound like his cup of tea.

"Maybe because you are?" Castle asked a little peevishly, sending the boy a grin over his shoulder, still triumphant about calling shot gun before Artemis.

Artemis glared back but soon adopted a smirk over his face, not letting the author getting the better of him, and asked, "I've been meaning to ask, what's the deal with you two?"

"What do you mean the 'deal' with us?" Beckett said a little sharply, giving him a warning look in the mirror.

"It's obvious," Artemis said offhandedly, while folding his hands as he usually did. "You two are in a relationship of some sort."

"What? No, we're not," Beckett said, surprise clear in her voice. This made Artemis and Butler exchange looks but neither of them said anything, both mirroring one another's raised eyebrow of disbelief. Artemis had adopted his usual cat-got-the-canary look and Butler, well he was Butler and just never talked. Castle was enjoying the exchange quite thoroughly, and gave the other occupants of the patrol car a sunny smile.

Just then, Beckett's phone buzzed and she wiped it out and barked, "Beckett," into it. In the meantime, Castle had twisted in his chair to face the two in the back.

"She's my work wife," he offered with an amused grin.

"Is that some kind of American way of saying you have a crush on your co-worker?" questioned Artemis, still peeved about being called a criminal, even though he knew perfectly well that not all his dealings were _legal_, and-maybe just a little-on not being able to sit shot gun.

"Well, children," Beckett cut in before Castle could reply, "it seems a bunch of kids found a body in Central Park."

"That saves a far bit of time, convenient," mused Artemis, thanking whoever was looking out for him that he wouldn't be ruining his loafers today, before adding, "I'd also like to add that there's only one child in this car and it isn't me."

Beckett let out a slight chuckle while Castle just stuck his tongue out at the Irish boy. The car soon pulled into one of the parking lots throughout the park and Beckett led the way into the groves of trees, with the three boys trailing behind her; Castle still pouting but seeming to be getting over it as he walked along with Artemis who toyed with his Pen Pal and Butler who kept a wary eye for anyone suspicious-which was everyone in the bald man's opinion.

It wasn't a far walk before they came across the yellow tape that blocked off a section of a footpath that didn't look nearly worn as some of the others and cops were already swarming the place. Doctor Lanie was at the scene, by the looks of some of the equipment set up. Beckett waved to some of the policemen standing guard around the perimeter of the scene and the small mismatched troupe of unlikely allies all made their way to where a certain woman clad in a white coroner's coat crouched over a body, looking distastefully at it as she did.

"Gloves," barked Beckett, sticking out her arm to stop Artemis from rushing over the body to see if it had anything of his on it. He scowled before striding off to box of blue latex gloves and shoving them on before coming back over to the doctor.

"Anything of mine?" he asked as he skidded to a halt next to the other three and the doctor.

"Nice to see you too, Master Fowl," Lanie said in her usual sensible tone.

Artemis sighed and started over again, "Hello, Doctor Parish, fancy meeting you here. What are you up to?"

Lanie gave him a slight smile; it was nice when there was someone around that wasn't an idiot (i.e. Castle) or a stick in the mud (i.e. Beckett, but only at times) before saying, "I didn't find anything on the body, tech-wise."

"Is it even human?" asked Beckett, who had crouched down to inspect the body while Artemis and Lanie talked.

For the first time, Artemis really looked at the body while Castle peered curiously over his shoulder. The body was short, almost child-like, but it was properly sized proportion-wise like an adult's would be. Other than that, it looked like it was well into the decomposition stage and it was surrounded by a rather impressive collection of empty alcohol bottles. Artemis smirked at the familiar sight, which went unnoticed by all except Butler, who was thinking along the same lines as his master.

"It's hard to say, it's the size of a child but it does have the body structure of a full grown human," Lanie said, observing the same things as Artemis did before she continued on, "But, it's definitely male in his mid-twenties. Despite the decomposing rate, I'd say he has been dead around four days."

"Let me guess, laser gun is the cause of death?" Beckett asked wearily while peering at the wound in the bodies' chest.

"Yes, it would appear so," Lanie replied hesitantly, while Castle let out a little squeak of glee.

"Where are those kids that found him?" questioned Beckett, remembering what the initial call had said found this…person.

"Over talking with Ryan. Esposito is sweeping the area for any evidence," the Doctor replied, indicating where a group of teenagers, all holding skateboards, were talking with Ryan.

"Any way to get prints off this guy?" asked Castle, peering at the victim's little hand that had barely recognizable skin on it.

"I doubt it," the doctor replied, carefully inspecting the victim's hand herself. "I've never seen decomposition this fast though, even with this weather."

"How do you know that it's been four days?" questioned Artemis, raising an eyebrow.

"When it's this hot out, bodies decompose quickly, this one just even more so," the Doctor replied frankly while Beckett just frowned and Artemis inspected the body through narrowed eyes from behind his sunglasses, not planning to tell what he knew about the body anytime soon.

"That sure is a lot of alcohol, even for a normal sized person," observed Beckett as she stood back up and walked around the circumference of the body, paying more attention to the bottles than the actual victim for the time being.

"If you think that's impressive, you should come see this," Esposito said as he approached the group. Beckett and Castle exchanged looks while Artemis raised an eyebrow and Butler remained stoic as always.

As the Detective and her 'lover,' as Artemis peevishly referred to the two in his mind, followed Esposito, the young Irish boy whipped out his Pen Pal and snapped a picture. The others might not know what or who exactly their victim was, but Artemis sure did. Now was the problem of figuring out the 'who' part of it. The phone dinged as he sent the message and slid the phone into his pocket once again, making Lanie glance up suspiciously at the boy.

Artemis smirked at her before giving her a wink and heading off in the direction the two detectives and one author. The Doctor narrowed her eyes at the retreating back of the boy. She liked him, he had spirit, but that didn't mean she wasn't suspicious of him. He definitely knew something that he wasn't sharing with the class, and she had a feeling that no one would ever be able to pry it out of him.

The pair-master and butler-soon caught up to the other three, who hadn't noticed their absence-as they headed farther away from the path and into the rocky outcropping of land that appeared to be a perfect hiding place. If it weren't for the other officers hanging around the place, guiding the group, Artemis seriously doubted he would have known exactly what he was looking for or how to go about finding it.

But then Esposito halted the group and they found themselves standing outside a small alcove in the rocks that was littered with glass bottles. The bottles were in various states, ranging from empty to unopened. Many were smashed, making the glass shards crunch under foot, and they were all scattered around in a random mess. But then again, when was a drunk organized?

Other than the bottles, the place also was draped with old t-shirts and pants, even a backpack full of chocolate bars, Mountain Dew, and chips. "Your basic video gaming snack essentials," Esposito said, as he held up the bag for the rest of them to investigate.

Castle snorted in amusement while Beckett and Artemis simultaneously rolled their eyes at the immaturity of the author, before said author commented, "So looks like our victim was a serial drunk."

"Or our murderer was," Beckett said as she continued to peer around the crime scene, picking up one of the t-shirts and finding that it was a much larger size than the body would have been able to wear.

Artemis, who up until that point, had remained silent, slightly smirked at that before his phone began to play its ringtone of 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.' He slid it out easily, saying, "Excuse me," and turning away from the alcove and its many alcohol bottles. "Foaly, what did you find?"

"Hey Sunshine," replied the centaur from the other end and then hurrying on before Artemis could bite back with a remark. "We found a match of your newest dead body; seems that he's the missing son of a Doctor Mycota of LEP tech development. He's around twenty-one, Mud Men years, and his name is Cerimon. By the looks of it, his family was pretty wealthy. Like millionaire wealthy. But don't worry, Arty, they aren't nearly as rich as you." Artemis slightly grinned at that, but the centaur continued on. "He's your typical spoiled rich kid, grew up in Elven Heights, the uppity part of town, and looks like he was on the straight and narrow up until a few years ago, when he was caught with some of uh…vodka?"

"Mud Man alcoholic beverage," Artemis supplied before adding, "Russian water."

"So, your Russian pseudonym self loves the stuff," Foaly quipped from the other end before hurrying on, "He was given a warning, since his parents are rich enough to buy that kind of favor. He seemed to be recovering until he vanished while on holiday to the New England coastline, but I guess you found him."

"Would it be pretty easy for Cerimon to get a Neutrino from his dad?" asked Artemis inching a little farther away from the two detectives and author while lowering his voice.

"Mother, actually," Foaly corrected before adding, "And yes."

"Hmm," Artemis replied in thought, already coming up with a hunch.

"That's all we got on him, got an idea?" the centaur concluded.

Artemis ignored the question and said, "Thank you Foaly, I always appreciate your assistance and I can't wait to try on those goggles." He clicked the phone off before the other could reply. With a slight grin, the boy turned and took the few steps back into the alcove, where Beckett was going about checking the sizes of the discarded shirts, seeing if they were all the same size; Castle was standing around, being in the way; Esposito was sifting through the contents of the backpack; and Butler was keeping a close eye on everything.

The two detectives were talking to one another, theorizing, while Castle would add in additional input that was pretty much ignored by the other two. "Who was that?" questioned Beckett, once she noticed Artemis was off the phone.

"One of my people," Artemis supplied, before turning and mouthing 'Foaly' to Butler.

"You have people?" Beckett said in disbelief, raising a skeptical eyebrow at him.

"My dear Beckett, after how our little Arty has thus far shown off his wealth, I'm really not surprised," Castled said, almost fondly.

Artemis scowled at him from behind his sunglasses and said, a little irritably, "Do you want to hear what I found out or what?"

"Shoot," Beckett said, a little distractedly as she picked up a pair of worn khaki cargos and began searching its pockets.

"Well, apparently the victim's name is Cerimon Mycota, son of a tech developer in a weapons manufacturing company. From what my people say, the kid was an alcoholic and also could have easily gotten his paws on a weapon," Artemis reported, leaving out as much information concerning the LEP and anything fairy-related as possible.

"Wait, how old is Cerimon? Did you get that?" Beckett asked, finding a wallet in one of the cargo's pockets and drawing out a silver credit card.

Artemis immediately saw where she was going with this; but before she could explained this, Castle said, delighted with himself, "I got it! Jason McArthur befriended Cerimon, an underage rich kid with an alcohol addiction, and he bought our victim drinks in exchange for a shoulder to cry on and bonded over their need to drink! Eventually, Cerimon probably spilled about being able to easily get weapons and Jason only needed to get him more drinks for the exchange to be made. That's how our killer got the gun!"

"And the inviso-suit?" Esposito prompted skeptically, although, judging by the look on his face, that story seemed pretty logical to him. And it pretty much was, as far as Artemis could tell, although there were some gaps in it.

Castle shrugged in response before asking Artemis, "Did this weapon company also make invisibility suits?" Artemis gave him a look that said 'that's just stupid,' even though it wasn't too far off the money and Castle just frowned a bit, like he knew that Artemis know something that he wasn't quite sharing.

"Well, we can see if Castle's story is true by checking Jason's credit cards," Beckett finally said, showing the three men and one young man the credit card.

"How do we know he didn't pay in cash?" Esposito asked.

"Because he didn't have any money to spend," Beckett replied with a grin, like for once, she was one step ahead. "We've already checked in on his savings. He hasn't had any money to withdraw for a month."

"But that was before Mircosoft bought Arty's tech," Castle replied before Artemis could say anything.

"I thought we decided to not call each other by nicknames, Rick," Artemis glared at the author before continuing, "But, in any case, it appears that him being fired from Mircosoft was the last straw and finally pushed him over the edge and he turned to his old friend Cerimon for help."

"So, you think my theory is true?" Castle said, a little ecstatically as Beckett and Esposito led the way back out of the rocks and to where Cerimon was, hanging out with Doctor Parish.

The slightest of smiles appeared on Artemis' face slipping off as fast as it came on and he said flatly, "No."

* * *

A/N: (RM) Yay! Finally got this chapter done! I'm so sorry for the super long wait; I really don't have an excuse. But, on the up side, Arty has been pestering me for the past few weeks to get this done (more like stalking) and now he'll leave me alone…although I have to write the next chapter. (I'll muddle through.) Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Leave review telling us how you though I did!


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